ESPN’s sports betting venture launches Tuesday in 17 states, with the sports media powerhouse attempting to use its brand to take on market leaders DraftKings and FanDuel for a slice of the $9 billion U.S. online sports betting market.
The Disney-owned sports network in August tapped Penn Entertainment in a $2 billion deal that will see the gambling company rebrand its Barstool Sportsbook. Existing Barstool accounts will migrate to ESPN Bet.
Penn bought Barstool in February from Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy.
The technology behind the ESPN Bet app came largely from Penn’s $2 billion 2021 acquisition of Canadian gaming app theScore, the Financial Times reported.