ESPN BET will officially close on December 1 after a two-year run. With its renewed push into Sports Wagering, ESPN has moved on A multi-year partnership with Draftkings. With the fast-growing sports betting market, the sudden closure of a site backed by a well-known brand has raised eyebrows.
ESPN BET is operated by Penn Entertainment, a casino and entertainment company, through a license agreement. The app allows fans to place wagers on all types of sports and teams, while including ESPN news, scores and analysis.
About a quarter of Americans (22 percent) have an online sports account, with the top users being men ages 18 to 49, according to a Siena Poll Survey. The US sports betting industry generated $13.7 billion in revenue last year, up from $11 billion in 2023, according to American Gaming Association. The nascent industry continued to gain momentum as the Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018. Today, 38 states offer some form of sports betting.
What exactly is wrong with ESPN BEB?
Industry experts point to several factors behind the fall of Espn Bet. Argument leading time: The product simply arrived too late. With Text and Fandoel firmly concentrated at the top of the sports betting market (commanding 44 percent and 34 percent of the market, respectively), breaking the duopoly has become increasingly difficult.
“If ESPN had started in 2018, there’s a better argument that it might have won at the end of the day,” Dustin Gouker, a gambling industry consultant, told Speculator. “But it would depend on a lot of variables, including the sports betting product itself, which many would say is Subn for Penn until recently.”
Ross Benes, a senior analyst with Emarketer, said Espn bet “confusion from the beginning.”
ESPN BET is the successor to Penn’s Barstool Sportsbook, which was launched in 2020 through a partnership between Penn and Barstool Sports and will close in 2023 after Penn sold its founder, Dave Portnoy. “There was a whole Barstool thing and it wasn’t clear where that was going,” said Benes, who watched.
“Barstool wasn’t as good at converting users as it was with Penn. ESPN was big, but it wasn’t very successful at the bottom of the influence of sports marketing,” Gouker said. ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said the rebranding “driving over 2.9 million new users to the Penn Ecosystem. ” ESPN BET reached 1.1 million users in its first week in November 2023
ESPN maintains deep relationships with Major Sports Leagues, including the NFL, NBA, MLB and NCAA, through broadcast and media rights agreements. While leagues have embraced sports betting, that momentum has been complicated by scandals. The NBA is currently under investigation for some of its talents allegedly involved in illegal gambling. The Benes say that it is possible with its parent company, its parent company, the Walt Disney Company, is monitoring, which makes it easier to get out of Sports Sports Betting on established operators such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions such as inventions inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions like inventions. “They don’t want to have something called ESPN BEB while their senior partners are being investigated.”
ESPN BET is designed to ‘compete for a podium position in the space,’ “Pen Optiment CEO and President Jay Snowden said earlier this month, when they announced the termination of the partnership. Snowden added that Penn plans to take back its US sports betting offering from TheScore Bet, which currently operates in Canada, and will align “its digital strategy to the company’s growing ICASINO business.
Under their initial agreement, Penn agreed to pay ESPN $150 million a year for use of the sports network’s name. The partnership was for 10 years, but included a clause that allowed either party to terminate the agreement after the third year if “certain market share thresholds were not met.”
Many viewers agree that the cut is hurting Disney a penny more financially, especially since ESPN alone is pulling in billions of dollars from Dolly Rights. In 2024, Disney reported $91.4 billion in revenue, making a loss of $150 million in comparison.
“If you think about it, $150 million is less than the cost of producing one Marvel movie,” Benes said.
