We’ll soon be getting answers to all those questions about the partnership between ESPN and PENN Entertainment to form ESPN Bet, as the online sportsbook is officially set to launch Nov. 14.
ESPN announced the date Thursday, setting the stage for its formal entrance into the competitive online sports betting industry dominated by the likes of DraftKings and FanDuel.
According to the release, ESPN Bet will be available in 17 states at launch. Those include Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Coming Soon
ESPN BET – a newly-branded online sportsbook for fans in the United States@notthefakeSVP featured in teaser spot
ESPN has begun transitioning to using official odds provided by ESPN BET across editorial & other content
https://t.co/Ob9zQqWweo pic.twitter.com/b4T32Sb49Z
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) November 1, 2023
Though ESPN Bet is obviously branded after ESPN, its betting operations are run by PENN, which previously owned the now defunct Barstool Sportsbook. The aim is to leverage ESPN’s audience into a large market share of sports bettors, but a launch this late into the football season leaves questions over whether it’s starting at a disadvantage.
There’s plenty of competition for market share after DraftKings and FanDuel, including from companies like BetMGM, Caesars and the new Fanatics Sportsbook — which did launch just prior to football season. There’s no guarantee the ESPN brand will be strong enough to lure bettors away from those established sportsbooks.
We’ll have answers to that soon, as well as whether concerns over conflicts of interest are warranted and how much ESPN’s on-air talent will contribute to promotion of the app. It appears quite a bit, based on a new teaser ad featuring Scott Van Pelt. The full campaign will also include Elle Duncan.
ESPN is also rebranding its Daily Wager show into ESPN Bet Live, beginning Nov. 10, and all the company’s odds across editorial and other content are officially provided by ESPN Bet.
