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How will ESPN Bet carve out its place in the industry?
August 22, 2023

How will ESPN Bet carve out its place in the industry?

Bookiecity

The stakes are high for ESPN's long-awaited foray into sports betting. Head of sportsbook Mike Morrison believes the broadcasting behemoth will upend the established industry order.

“There was an inevitability about this,” ESPN’s Mike Morrison says of the sports giant’s move into betting.

Partnering Penn Entertainment to launch ESPN Bet brought years of speculation – and the operator’s partnership with Barstool Sports – to a close. This was momentous at every level.

First, the announcement came as a surprise. Penn’s sportsbook now connects with a vast audience, potentially catapulting the operator’s interactive business to the top tier of operators.

To the general news connoisseur, beloved multimedia behemoth the Walt Disney Company – owner of ESPN – entered the sports betting race.

ESPN Bet: A deal five years in the making

Sports betting is a natural extension for ESPN and speculation over deals with DraftKings and Caesars Entertainment was rife.

Head of sportsbook Morriso..

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ESPN Bet to launch in November
August 9, 2023

ESPN Bet to launch in November

Bookiecity

Jay Snowden, president and CEO of Penn Entertainment, confirmed that ESPN Bet will go live in November this year.

Penn and sports broadcaster ESPN’s transformative $1.5bn deal will consist of Penn relaunching its existing Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet.

Off the back of the deal Penn is divesting its Barstool Sports sportsbook brand and selling it back to Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool.

Snowden confirmed the month for launch on Penn’s earnings call today, following the publication of its second quarter results.

When the deal was announced yesterday, Penn said the launch had been set for “the fall”, with no specific details as to when.

On the earnings call, Snowden skipped around the month with “sometime this fall” and “certainly before Thanksgiving” before landing on November.

Snowden defended the timing of the launch amid claims it would come too late in the NFL season.

“I think our launch in November is good, because it won’t get lost at the beginning of football season,”..

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ESPN makes its betting move as Penn lets go of Barstool
August 8, 2023

ESPN makes its betting move as Penn lets go of Barstool

Bookiecity

Disney-owned sports broadcaster ESPN is moving into sports betting in partnership with Penn Entertainment, which will sell the Barstool brand back to founder Dave Portnoy.

Penn’s Barstool Sportsbook is relaunching as ESPN Bet this autumn through the $1.5bn deal. This immediately provides the brand with a footprint across 16 legal betting states, covering its mobile website and app and desktop site.

Penn says its partnership with the largest sports brand in the US increases the long-term adjusted EBITDA potential for its interactive segment by between $500m and $1.0bn.

Penn is divesting Barstool Sports, its sportsbook brand since 2020, as a result. Barstool founder Dave Portnoy buys back 100% of its share capital “in exchange for certain non-compete and other restrictive covenants”.

The terms of the deal

ESPN and Snowden comment

What about theScore and icasino?

Barstool back with Portnoy

Disney’s history with betting

Exclusive access to ESPN assets

ESPN Bet leverages ESPN’s m..

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Penn launches military scholarship at Penn State Berks
April 17, 2023

Penn launches military scholarship at Penn State Berks

Bookiecity

US-based gaming operator Penn Entertainment announced it is creating a military scholarship at the commonwealth campus of Penn State University, Penn States Berks.

The scholarship will be endowed through a multi-year $50,000 spend, which the company frames as supporting the Berks County community where Penn’s corporate headquarters are located. The business said that the initiative was part of Penn’s ongoing commitment to support veterans and active-duty military.

The scholarship will be available to veterans, activity duty reservists or National Guard members with a “demonstrated financial need”. At present, close to 50 student veterans are enrolled at the campus.

“We are thrilled to partner with Penn State Berks on the creation of this scholarship, which further strengthens our support for the military and our local community,” said Penn”s senior vice-president of public affairs, Eric Schippers. “Penn is passionate about honouring and empowering our nation’s heroes and this schola..

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Penn Entertainment completes acquisition of Barstool Sports
February 17, 2023

Penn Entertainment completes acquisition of Barstool Sports

Bookiecity

Omni-channel gaming operator Penn Entertainment has completed its acquisition of media business Barstool Sports.

The closing of the deal is the latest stage of an acquisition process that began in February 2020, when the Penn purchased a 36% stake in Barstool.

Today (17 February), Penn revealed that it has paid approximately $388m (£322.5m/€363m) for the remaining interest in the business, having exercised its option to acquire in August 2022.

Read the full story on iGB North America

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Playing the long game
October 14, 2022

Playing the long game

Bookiecity

Last week, sports betting solutions provider Kambi and Penn Entertainment finalised the terms of their long-awaited migration deal, wherein Penn’s online and retail sportsbooks will migrate to its proprietary technology. Marese O’Hagan speaks to Kambi CEO Kristian Nylén about the future of the deal and the rise of vertical integration.

In August 2021, Penn Entertainment – then known as Penn National Gaming – announced that it would acquire Canadian sportsbook theScore for $2.0bn (£2.79bn/€2.05bn). The plan was to migrate Penn’s betting products onto a platform created by theScore, which did not yet exist at the time of the deal.

Having worked with Penn since 2019, this deal came as a disappointment to Kambi. From Kambi’s perspective, it was losing a vital client to a platform that had not yet been created. And it certainly didn’t help that the announcement came on the back of the migration of another high-profile client in DraftKings.

The finalisation of Kambi and Penn’s migration a..

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Penn exercises options to acquire remainder of Barstool
August 18, 2022

Penn exercises options to acquire remainder of Barstool

Bookiecity

Penn Entertainment – the business formerly known as Penn National Gaming – has exercised its option to acquire all remaining shares of media brand Barstool Sports.

Penn acquired a 36% stake in Barstool for $161.2m in 2020, after which it rebranded its sportsbook product to bear the Barstool brand name.

The operator would then increase its stake in Barstool beyond 50% – paying $62.0m for a further 14% stake – within three years. Penn was also granted immediately exercisable call rights that would allow it to acquire the remainder of the media business, “based on a fair market value calculation”.

In February of this year, Penn then revealed that it planned to exercise these options and control the entire Barstool business by early 2023.

Read the full story on iGB North America

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