ESPN Had Long History of Sports Betting Interest Before ESPN BET Deal

• ESPN has teased getting into the sports betting market since at least 2021
• The sports media giant had been connected with DraftKings and Caesars before the PENN Entertainment deal
• The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that ESPN explored a branding deal worth at least $3 billion

It came out of the blue this week when PENN Entertainment and ESPN announced a $2 billion partnership to launch ESPN BET by the fall. But despite the surprise announcement, ESPN has been looking into branding deals with multiple sports betting operators since at least 2021.

ESPN BET will launch in 16 states by the middle of the NFL season, “certainly before Thanksgiving,” according to PENN Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden. It’s the latest attempt by PENN to partner with a media brand for sports betting after it became clear that its previous partnership with Barstool Sports was not living up to expectations.

But the partnership with PENN Entertainment was a surprising one, as ESPN has been publicly linked to several other sports betting operators in the last three years. New users will be able to sign up with an exclusive ESPN sportsbook promo to get a welcome bonus on launch day.

PENN Made “Aggressive” Offer to ESPN

Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed the partnership yesterday during the company’s Q3 2023 fiscal year earnings report. Iger noted that ESPN had discussions with “a number of entities” over the past several years, but PENN Entertainment “stepped up in a very aggressive way.”

“They made an offer to us that was better than any of the competitive offers — by far,” Iger said during the report.

The PENN partnership was even more surprising considering ESPN had two previous media deals with both DraftKings and Caesars dating back to 2020. The sports media giant entered into two separate multi-year agreements with the two sports betting companies and became linked to both following a Wall Street Journal report in 2021.

According to the Wall Street Journal, ESPN was seeking to license its brand with a major sports-betting company for $3 billion in 2021. The report specifically mentioned ESPN had branding discussions with both DraftKings and Caesars.

ESPN Refuted DraftKings Rumors

Last October, whispers out of the industry began to claim that ESPN was nearing a deal with DraftKings, one that ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro refuted in November 2022 at the Sports Business Journal Media Innovators conference in New York.

“We’ve been exploring. We’ve had conversations with all the usual suspects, looking at what could be the logical next step for us. We are not going to, and I’ve said this repeatedly, we’re not going to create a book. We’re not going to take people’s money. We’re not going to set lines, spreads, and odds, it’s not what we do. The idea of leaning in a bit more here, creating a more seamless experience, it’s something that’s definitely on the table,” Pitaro said at the conference.

Pitaro’s comments were a stark contrast to rumors that surrounded ESPN in early October 2022, when several outlets reported the sports media giant was close to licensing its brand to DraftKings Sportsbook. Bloomberg reported that ESPN and DraftKings was close to an agreement for the massive sports media company to license its brand to the sports betting operator.