ESPN has terminated its sports betting partnership with Penn Entertainment, paving the way for DraftKings to take charge.
The multiplatform sports media firm, owned by the Walt Disney Company, ended its agreement with Penn not long after agreeing a ten-year, $2 billion deal back in 2023.
In July, analyst Jeffrey Stantail revealed it was increasingly likely Penn would opt out of the deal with Disney.
DraftKings is now the exclusive official sportsbook and odds provider for ESPN, with changes to take effect in December.
ESPN’s mobile betting tab will be powered by DraftKings. Sports betting has become an integral part of the streaming platform’s vision in recent years but Disney has always been clear it would never take bets directly.
The initial arrangement between ESPN and Penn allowed for either party to end the contract “if specific market share performance thresholds were not met.”
The companies had aimed to secure 10%-20% market share after three years. The underperforming sportsbook cost Penn $150 million annually and captured just 3% of the American market, making it the sixth-most popular in the country.
Penn’s sportsbook is set to be rebranded as ‘theScore Bet,’ which it purchased for $2 billion back in 2021 before ending its US operations a year later to focus on the Canadian market.
The product is hoped to be ready by December 1 to coincide with the start of Missouri sports betting and the ESPN Bet app will be automatically updated to theScore Bet on the date of the transition.
ESPN users will be able to access DraftKings’ sportsbook, daily fantasy and Pick6 with a full rollout of all integrations expected to follow in the new year.
DraftKings has more than ten million customers in 28 states and in terms of market share in the United States, it trails only FanDuel.
Penn plans to realign its digital focus on growing its iCasino business, explaining in a statement they wish to capitalise on their omnichannel advantage as the nation’s leading regional retail casino operator.
Joe Lyons is a betting industry writer for GamblingIndustryNews with years of experience on reputable gambling websites. Joe specialises in long form content in the world of sports betting and gambling. Joe is recognised as an expert in sports fields such as horse racing, soccer, NFL and NBA.
