Disney with PENN Entertainment to launch ESPN Bet

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
This is absolutely Disney evolving with the times. The sky was falling when they introduced alcohol into the castle parks too. Sports betting is such a mainstream vice right now that if they want ESPN to maintain it's stature they needed this evolution.

The Barstool Sports side of this development is also mildly interesting.
 

Br0ckford

Well-Known Member
😉
 

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MR.Dis

Well-Known Member
From the beginning they said they did not want to sell ESPN--most recently they mentioned getting a minority partner. It was always clear to those who followed sports, that the main reason Disney wanted to hang onto ESPN was to the sports gambling. A quick google showed over 60 billion was bet with approx 7.5 billion profit in last year. That is way too much revenue to not take advantage of some small percent. By the way, rumor has it that the Global Dream Disney purchased for the Asian market will have a full casino (no official word one way or the other).
 

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

The biggest quote from that article

"All the major sportsbook appear to have passed, with only Penn willing to cut ESPN a large, albeit far less than originally desired, annual licensing check for the ESPN brand,” Greenfield said, which underscores the ESPN’s growing profitability hole stemming from rising programming costs and revenue pressures.

It all begs the question of what Disney’s plan is for ESPN.

“Everything about Disney is premium quality. Penn is not a market leader in sports betting and nobody believes their technology is good enough to compete with the industry leaders,” Greenfield said."
 

Po'Rich

Well-Known Member
Interesting stylization choice to fully capitalize "BET." I'm sure they wanted it to balance out with the capitalized "ESPN," but my brain immediately goes to another cable channel that tends to be nearby on the dial. On the bright side, I've saved them the trouble and cost of creating a custom logo:
View attachment 736365


I remember when DCL launched, Disney was quite proud that their ships broke from industry standards by not having casinos, as gambling didn't align with TWDC's core values. [Edit: This seems to be a case of Disney setting the trends rather than chasing them, as it's far more common to find big ships throughout the cruise industry without casinos than it was when DCL launched.] How the times have changed!
Interesting that they put the star after BET. The BET network (which has nothing to do with gambling) also includes a star after BET.
 

"El Gran Magnifico"

Bring Me A Shrubbery
Premium Member
There's no slam dunk here. Disney needs a solid plan.

They are going to need to deal with the Seminoles in the State of Florida. And other states with similar types of compacts. You've also got competitors like Draft Kings (a company who has some prominent team owners and people like Michael Jordan as investors/board members), and there are going to be more players entering the arena (various states) soon. It's only going to be as successful as the product they are putting out.

If it's a poor product (which I'm not saying it will be) it will underperform. If they put out an exceptional product it will succeed.

But by no means - just because there is a Disney backed ESPN sports betting app - does it mean automatic adoption and success.
 

Andrew C

You know what's funny?
what is opinion based about something literally everyone has been doing whether its legal or not for centuries.....
It can still be considered unethical by some people...and I am sure these individuals have reasonable arguments for why they believe this to be true. 🤷‍♂️
 

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