You know ESPN the sports media giant. Now brace yourself for ESPN Bet, a rebranding of an existing sports-betting app owned by Penn Entertainment, which is paying $1.5 billion plus other considerations for exclusive rights to the ESPN name.
The deal, announced Tuesday, could take Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN into uncharted waters. Disney is fiercely protective of its family-friendly image, not typically associated with the world of sports gambling.
Penn will operate ESPN Bet, which ESPN has agreed to promote across its online and broadcast platforms in order to generate “maximum fan awareness” of the app. ESPN Bet will also have unspecified “access” to ESPN talent, the companies said.
Penn's rights to the ESPN brand will initially run for a decade and can be extended for another decade by mutual agreement. In addition to the $1.5 billion licensing deal, which will be paid out over a decade, Penn will also grant ESPN rights worth about $500 million to purchase shares in Penn.
“Penn Entertainment is the perfect partner to build an unmatched user experience for sports betting with ESPN Bet,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement.
Disney has wrestled with the issue of adult-oriented entertainment in the past. Until about 15 years ago, its Walt Disney World park in Orlando, Florida, featured a gated late-night area known as Pleasure Island — actually a reference to the 1940 film “Pinocchio,” whose characters visited a den of iniquity by that name. Pleasure Island featured bars, music venues and nightclubs in addition to restaurants, shopping and a nightly countdown to “New Year's Eve” complete with fireworks.
When attendance waned, Disney closed down the Pleasure Island nightclubs in 2008 and redeveloped the site as a restaurant and shopping district now known as The Landing at Disney Springs.
ESPN added that it will use its platforms “to educate sports fans on responsible gaming” — for instance by continuing to cover the sports betting industry with “journalistic integrity,” creating a “responsible gaming” committee within the company and developing marketing guidelines that “safeguard” fans.
Penn also announced that it sold Barstool Sports, an irreverent sports media site, back to its founder Dave Portnoy. Penn took a 36% stake of Barstool Sports in February 2020 for about $163 million and subsequently acquired the remainder of the company for about $388 million in February 2023. Neither Penn nor Portnoy disclosed terms of the divestment deal.
In a video posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Portnoy radiated excitement over the site's regained independence. The regulated gambling industry, he said, “was probably not the best place for Barstool Sports and the kind of content we make.” Portnoy added that he will “never” sell the company. As part of the divestment deal, Penn would be owed 50% of the gross proceeds from any future sale or “monetization” of Barstool.
Former NFL QB Lester Ricard Jr. joins Cheddar Bets to discuss playing--and beating--the same team three times in a season ahead of the NFC Championship Game.
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Super Group, the company behind leading global online sports betting and gaming businesses Betway and Spin, has landed on Wall Street. The company went public via SPAC with Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp., and now lists on the NYSE under the ticker symbol 'SGHC.' This debut comes as the U.S. sports betting market continues to heat up with more and more states legalizing the practice. Eric Grubman, chairman of Super Group, joined Cheddar to discuss.
Olivia Harlan Dekker and Sean Green provide their insight and top picks after studying the early lines for Super Bowl LIV, while Chris Spagnuolo breaks down betting trends from this NFL season using data and analytics. Sponsored by BetMGM.
Eight months after the National Football League announced $1 million in research into cannabinoids, the NFL-NFLPA Joint Pain Management Committee has awarded the funding to two teams of medical researchers at the University of California San Diego and the University of Regina. The NFL says the studies will investigate the effects of cannabinoids on pain management and neuroprotection from concussion in elite football players, respectively. Cheddar correspondent Chloe Ailello spoke with Jeff Miller, the executive vice president of communications, public affairs, and policy for the NFL, about the studies, as well as the recent lawsuit filed against the NFL by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. "Maybe we can learn things from other alternative pain approaches that are going to benefit our player population and then sports medicine as a whole," Miller said.
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This April, Madison Square Garden will be hosting the first-ever women's boxing match to headline at the arena in its 140 years of history in boxing. Undisputed lightweight champion, Katie Taylor, and seven-division champion, Amanda Serrano, will go head-to-head for a career-high guaranteed seven-figure purse for both of them. The pair joined Cheddar News to talk about the upcoming "fight of their lives." "I mean, this is the first step I believe," said Serrano. "Unheard of, two women headlining the Garden, we get in the biggest paydays of our career, I hope it continues to break down barriers."
A year after announcing plans for a name change, Washington, DC's NFL team has settled on Commanders. The update comes after receiving years of criticism for the previous nickname deemed highly offensive by Native American groups and communities.
