ESPN Mulls Deal with Online Gambling Titans
With an incredible surge in online sports gambling over the past year and a half, it comes as no surprise that ESPN, a Walt Disney Comany-owned network, is pursuing a licensing agreement with one of two online sports gambling titans: Draft Kings or Caesars Entertainment.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the winning sportsbook would be able to use the ESPN name for their entity as part of the deal, which is currently rumored to be worth at least $3 billion, according to the article.
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Though a deal is nowhere near finalized, it would allow ESPN to dip into the insanely profitable market of sports betting. With 27 states now legalizing online sports betting and the impacts of the coronavirus, the industry exploded over the past year. In fact, the Super Bowl alone saw a 63% increase in online wagers made on the game, according to CBS news. Through licensing, ESPN would not need to start or operate their own online betting platform.
News of the possible licensing deal caused Disney stock prices to soar yesterday in midday trading. Stock prices for both entities bidding for the rights also rose over the course of the day.
Partnerships Already Established
Already, DraftKings exclusively supports daily fantasy sports content for ESPN. Caesars provides all of ESPN’s odds analysis.
Photo: espn.com.au/wwe/
“The sports media giant also opened an ESPN studio at the Caesars-owned Linq Hotel on the Las Vegas strip in August 2020. ESPN has increasingly committed to providing sports betting content, including the Daily Wager television show, which is filmed at the Linq and airs on ESPN+, its paid subscription division,” according to an article in Forbes magazine.
Though talks are not finished yet on any deal, it does appear that the sports network is certainly interested in furthering their partnership with one of the two companies. The question still remains “whether gaming companies have an appetite to pay for the ESPN name when they are already investing to establish their existing brands,” according to the WSJ article.
Image Credit: ESPN
Of course, MickeyBlog will continue following this intriguing story and what it will mean for ESPN in the future.
Feature Image Credit: ESPN
