The world’s largest sports activities media firm is seeking to model its personal sportsbook.
According to a report from Front Office Sports, ESPN is eying the method with one supply telling the outlet that the corporate goes “all-in” on sports activities betting.
The transfer comes shortly after Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a invoice that legalized sports activities betting and all different types of on-line playing, together with poker. ESPN’s headquarters is situated in Bristol, Conn.
It can be one of many subsequent logical steps for the media big because it has made a number of strides to include extra playing content material on its packages, in addition to making partnerships with different playing entities. In May 2019, ESPN partnered with Caesars Entertainment to construct a TV studio on the Las Vegas Strip on the LINQ Hotel & Casino. The studio is the place the corporate produces its sports activities betting present the “Daily Wager.”
Last September, it agreed to partnerships with William Hill, Caesars Sports Betting companion, and with DraftKings. The deal would permit the sportsbooks to promote throughout the ESPN Fantasy apps. The apps would use geo-location software program to ship these units situated in regulated sports activities betting markets on to the sportsbooks.
It wouldn’t even be the primary sports activities media firm to make the soar into the world of bookmaking. Fox Sports partnered with The Stars Group to launch Fox Bet within the fall of 2019 and Barstool Sports launched its sportsbook final September.
Those two media firms weren’t owned by the Walt Disney Co., nevertheless, which has traditionally been against playing growth.