ESPN Bet pitch and app mockup | Image: Penn Entertainment

As ESPN’s future drifts in the direct-to-consumer wind, a deal with Penn Entertainment will let the sportsbook rename existing properties, like its Barstool Sportsbook, to ESPN Bet. In return, Penn is scheduled to pay ESPN $1.5 billion over the next ten years, as well as warrants to buy shares of the operation and potentially appoint a board member.
In early 2022, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek said Disney’s opportunity “extends to sports betting, gaming, and the Metaverse.” Now, Chapek is gone, the metaverse team is dismantled, and new/old CEO Bob Iger described its gambling strategy in an interview as “we’re not actually causing the bets to be made. We’re just enabling people to link to companies that do that.”
This appears to be the…

Continue reading…