Erin Dolan’s best bet had nothing to do with a sporting event.
The 29-year-old ESPN sports betting analyst bet on herself when she negotiated a multi-year contract renewal with the Worldwide Leader in a personal and professional first, Dolan told The Post in a wide-ranging interview.
“I’m really happy about the deal,” said Dolan, whose contract renewal was announced Sept. 4 by ESPN. “I negotiated that myself, which I was really proud of this time around. I’m really trying to be more business-minded and really just doing it myself. I just think I’m at a point in my career where I really wanted to control myself.”
Dolan, who joined ESPN in December of 2021, said she knew exactly what she wanted when it was time to negotiate her contract.
She did not share the exact details of the deal.
“I think that is my double-edged sword. I really want what I want, but also, I have to come up with the value to provide the company as well,” Dolan said. “There’s a mutual understanding [between us] and with any business agreement, they gain a lot from me and I gain a lot from them. It’s great.
“But this was really something that I have never done before, in negotiating for myself. So I learned everything. And I really am proud of just the way that it was handled. And, you know, everyone got what they wanted.”
As part of her new deal, Dolan will appear regularly across multiple shows, including “ESPN BET Live,” “SportsCenter,” “Sunday NFL Countdown” and more.
ESPN viewers will see versatility in the segments, according to Dolan.
“I feel like I’ve done a good job at keeping the line of entertainment and fun, while also being professional, and balancing many different hats,” Dolan said. “I feel like on ESPN, I have the opportunity to, let’s say, for example, on ‘SportsCenter,’ I’m not going to be my crazy fun self as much as I would be on ‘BET Live,’ and then I’m more buttoned up on ‘Countdown.’
“This is something that’s so new for everybody that I really had to teach myself, learn to produce and be involved in every single aspect of everything. I definitely come up with my own picks every single, solitary time. No one’s telling you what to say. I don’t use a teleprompter. I don’t have anything to really rely on. Like, I really have it in my head. So that’s something that I’m proud of.”
Dolan said it was hard to build credibility, especially as a woman in the sports betting space — which is why her DMs are off.
“I think no matter what, I’ll always have a target [on me] in general,” Dolan said. “I’m in a space that’s more niche than even sports is. When I was first coming up, it was so hard for me. It was really difficult, especially because I’m telling people what to put their money on. So the security side of that is a real thing. I have all my DMs off completely , like I don’t see anything. I usually don’t read anything. Sometimes I’ll see something, but I find it funny at this point.
“It was Week 1 [of the 2025 NFL season], and I posted on social media for the first time in a while, and people were like, ‘Okay, she’s more into football’ and ‘welcome back.’”
That’s mild compared to the comments Dolan receives about her appearance and body.
“People say, ‘She used to be thicker’ or ‘She looks so old’ or ‘She looked better before this,’” Dolan said. “… People just come for your body, and it is just nonstop… But I find them actually hilarious.”
The chirps from strangers haven’t hindered Dolan from being unapologetically herself. In fact, the diehard Eagles fan and Philadelphia native is proud to show off her fandom on-air.
“I’m not a reporter… I can just be myself,” said Dolan, who rang the Liberty Bell at a Sixers game in February 2024. “And also, we’re all in sports because we grew up loving a specific sport. No one is saying, ‘You know what? I love all 32 teams, and that’s why I’m doing this.’ That just doesn’t exist. I think there comes an edge of being from Philadelphia. I came from the suburbs and whatnot, and you’re a loyal, diehard person.
“We hate the Cowboys, but at the same time, I mean, I gave up the Cowboys in the first half because I thought that was right. I’m not going to just be like, ‘Hey, here’s the Eagles’ picks.’ People know not to expect that for me. They just expect that I’m going to give what I think is going to hit.”
Dolan broke down the challenges and difficulties that come with working inside the betting space.
“Another thing with balancing sports betting that’s really hard is the lines move around 24/7,” she said. “So I’m changing the picks or changing the analysis, or ‘Oh, I don’t like this guy. I have to have this as a backup.’ For example, [during a recent] ‘Thursday Night Football,’ I had a best bet. Loved it, gave it out. All of a sudden it’s taken off the board. Then, it’s put back up, now it’s a different number. Now, I don’t like it. So now I gotta pivot. But I also was on a ‘best bet’ streak. But now, I can’t use that. It’s so all over the place. It’s really hard to make content around betting, which anybody can attest to.”
Outside of work, Dolan spends as much time as she can at the beach, her happy place, and with her boyfriend, Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm. She also enjoys creating content, spotlighting the behind-the-scenes of her job on TikTok.
“At the end of the day, we’re very much human and we don’t do anything very special, all of our energy is at work,” Dolan said. “We very much veg at home. We’re people that don’t really leave the house.”
It’s hard to imagine there was a point when Dolan contemplated “getting out of the industry” because she wasn’t interested in being a reporter, writer or a host.
Sports betting became legalized in 2018, the same year Dolan graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism, but she was naive to it at the time.
“I actually thought about getting out of the industry right away when I came out of college, because I knew that I didn’t really like those things, but my dad was like, just stick with it for a little bit, see what happens,” Dolan said. “And then this opportunity [with ESPN] hit, and obviously, I hit at a very lucky time. I understand my timing was quite impeccable, and the industry, it lined up right away with graduating and then that [sports betting] becoming legal.
“But again, I didn’t have an awareness of [sports betting] because I was in college. You’re not allowed to talk about that. You don’t hear about that. I was so used to, ‘This is what you do,’ and ‘Here’s a camera and here’s Premiere Pro, here’s this and that.’ And like everything I did in college, I did it on my phone. We were told to take the camera out and go film stuff.”
Prior to ESPN, Dolan was on-air talent at FanDuel and PointsBet sportsbooks, creating sports betting content across their social channels and various programming. Additionally, she was part of B/R Betting’s “The Group Chat” and hosted “The Early Line” weekdays on SiriusXM.
Before entering the sports betting world, Dolan was a sports reporter at PHL17 in Philadelphia and a sideline reporter for the Philadelphia Wings.