Penn Moves Away from Portnoy & Barstool In Favor of McAfee with ESPN Bet

• PENN Entertainment is ditching Barstool Sportsbook for ESPN Bet moving forward
• Pat McAfee will likely be the main spokesperson for online sports betting at ESPN
• PENN Entertainment is favoring McAfee over top Barstool personality, Dave Portnoy

A news dump that shattered the current landscape of the online sports betting industry, PENN Entertainment officially announced on August 8 that they would be creating an online sportsbook with ESPN and closing down Barstool Sportsbook.

It felt like only a matter of time before ESPN inserted themselves into the online sports betting game. They had been slowly phasing out a lot of their traditional sports coverage, and the recent acquisition of podcast personality Pat McAfee (who is a sports betting supporter) felt like a precursor to a bigger move.

Now that ESPN Bet is officially a thing and Barstool Sportsbook is no more, it’s hard to ignore the likelihood that PENN felt better about a long-term relationship with McAfee than they did Portnoy.

What Will Pat McAfee’s Role With ESPN Bet Look Like?

After wrapping up a four-year/$120 million contract with FanDuel Sportsbook, Pat McAfee officially joined ESPN on a five-year/$85 million deal.

This deal includes McAfee’s daily podcast “The Pat McAfee Show” which will now appear on ESPN, ESPN+, and the company’s YouTube page. Additionally, McAfee will continue his weekly appearances on ESPN College Gameday, which he started last year and had a great amount of success doing.

McAfee will keep creative control of his show as well, allowing him to bring on the guests and reporters of his choosing.

From ESPN’s point of view, they’re getting 200+ highly viewed shows and programs a year to run advertisements on. Following the recent announcement of ESPN Bet, the move to acquire McAfee makes even more sense.

While working for FanDuel, McAfee was able to drive his audience to signing up and betting with FanDuel Sportsbook due to frequent mentions on his show, special promotions, and more. While it’s unclear what exactly McAfee’s role will look like with ESPN Bet, one can reasonably assume that he will be tasked with promoting the brand and encouraging his audience to make it their go-to sportsbook.

The combination of the ESPN brand and McAfee’s audience should drastically help ESPN Bet get off the ground and compete with the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings.

Looking at Dave Portnoy and Barstool

For as much success as PENN and Dave Portnoy had together creating Barstool Sportsbook, it’s clear PENN wanted to go in a different direction when it came to their leading betting personality.

Dave Portnoy has a strong fanbase in the U.S., but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that some of his comments and posts lean on the more controversial side.

ESPN just announced an agreement with PENN Entertainment to launch ESPN Bet, a new branded sportsbook in the U.S., by this Fall in the 16 states where PENN is licensed to operate.

— RLinnehanXL (@RLinnehanXl) August 8, 2023

McAfee, on the other hand, has done a better job keeping his comments and his show in line with what these top sports brands are looking to promote.

This isn’t necessarily a “bad” thing for Portnoy. He gets his company back and has complete creative control to run things the way he wants to without worrying about what PENN’s vision is (as long as he stays out of the betting scene, as he signed a non-compete).

However, between ESPN shelling out $85 million to Pat McAfee this past spring and PENN committing billions to create ESPN Bet, it’s clear that they are collectively more confident in McAfee’s ability to spearhead a growing sports betting company.