Ethics + Conflicts — The Cover

Personal betting by editorial staff

Editorial staff may bet on games and props personally. This is a sports betting analysis publication — pretending our writers aren't bettors would be dishonest. What they cannot do:

Bet against a pick they published on The Cover. (You cannot publish an "over" recommendation and then privately bet the under.)
Bet on games or props involving teams they are covering for a specific article until the article is published.
Front-run public picks: writers do not place their own bets on the picks in the daily Tonight's Best Plays board before the board is published. If they choose to tail a published pick after publication, that is disclosed to the editor.
Bet on college or amateur games where they have any personal relationship with the players, coaching staff, or the school itself.

No editorial positions at sportsbooks or teams

No editorial staff member may hold a paid position, ambassador role, or advisory relationship with a sportsbook operator, a professional team, a league, or a player agency. Fantasy leagues (personal, not commercial) are permitted. Being a paid consultant to a sportsbook is not, and disqualifies the person from writing for The Cover.

Gifts, comps, and press credentials

Editorial staff may accept press credentials from teams, leagues, and sportsbook operators for events they are covering. Meals provided during covered events are permitted. What is not permitted:

Cash gifts of any amount from any source connected to what we cover.
Sportsbook "influencer accounts" with pre-loaded credit or elevated betting limits.
Free travel or lodging paid by a team, league, or sportsbook, except in cases where the same access is offered to all credentialed press. Where this line is ambiguous, we err on the side of paying our own way, and the writer discloses any accepted arrangement to the editor in advance.
Free product from teams, leagues, or sportsbooks beyond standard press-package merchandise (media guides, credential lanyards, etc.).

Source relationships

When a writer has a personal relationship with someone they're covering — a family member on a coaching staff, a former teammate now playing professionally, a close friend running a fantasy site or sportsbook — they disclose that relationship to the editor before publishing an article that mentions the person or organization. Depending on the closeness of the relationship, the editor may reassign the article to a different writer or add an inline disclosure to the piece.

Anonymous sources

Anonymous sourcing is permitted for information that cannot be obtained on the record and where the source has direct knowledge (e.g., a team's injury status ahead of an official announcement). We do not accept anonymous quotes for opinion, speculation, or personal attacks. Every anonymous source is known to at least one editor. We do not burn sources.

Reviewing our own performance

When The Cover writes about its own performance (site traffic, algorithm accuracy, reader engagement), those articles are reviewed by an editor who was not directly responsible for the underlying work. We do not run self-congratulatory pieces without an outside data check.

Handling reader complaints about ethics violations

Ethical concerns about a specific article or writer can be reported to [email protected]. All reports are read by the Publisher (currently Will Meakins) and investigated within seven days. Substantiated violations result in a public disclosure appended to the article in question and, in serious cases, ending the writing relationship with the offending contributor.

Reviewing this policy

This policy is reviewed at least once a year and updated as necessary. Substantive changes are logged in Corrections to give readers visibility into what changed.

Last updated 2026-09-10. Reviewed by Doug Whiteside (Editor in Chief) and Will Meakins (Publisher).

The rules our editorial team follows.