Digital Wager Wire highlights the most important events impacting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industry landscape each Sunday throughout the year.
ESPN Bet Celebrates 1st Anniversary
In November of 2023, ESPN Bet launched simultaneously in 17 markets, but it was a long, strange trip to get there. Penn Entertainment purchased the remaining shares of Barstool Sports in March for approximately $550 million.
The bro-oriented sports media brand was used as a mouthpiece for Penn’s Barstool Sportsbook. Although Penn’s mobile sports betting site was a relative newcomer to the industry, the returns were a bit disappointing, and investors were getting restless. It was in August of last year that Penn became aware that ESPN was interested in doing a deal with the highest bidder.
Penn CEO Jay Snowden made an immediate pivot and went all in on creating a sportsbook with the worldwide leader in sports. The cost of a long-term lease on those four letters and access to ESPN’s media rights, intellectual property, and ultimately the ability to link the sports betting app with Disney’s ESPN app was $1.5 billion over 10 years.
There was also one other caveat that was a bitter, albeit nonnegotiable, pill for Penn Entertainment to swallow. Per terms of the deal with ESPN, the company was forced to divest itself of the controversial Barstool brand and shutter the sportsbook it had paid over half a billion dollars for only months before. Penn had to act fast, and they sold Barstool Sports back to its founder, Dave Portnoy, for $1 with the promise that should Portnoy ever sell the brand, Penn Entertainment would receive 50% of the profits.
It has now been one year since ESPN Bet launched, and the sports betting app is beginning to gain traction in an industry dominated by FanDuel and DraftKings. It was recently announced that ESPN Bet is now linking with the ESPN app and ESPN.com. Integration between the sites has been a highly anticipated feature of the deal, and now it has come to fruition.
Ohio Fines DraftKings $425.00
The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) announced a settlement agreement earlier this week with Boston-based DraftKings for violations concerning college player props and account funding violations. Ohio banned college player props from appearing on sports betting menus throughout the state beginning on March 1st of this year.
It was revealed that DraftKings accepted an undisclosed number of college player prop bets between March 14th and March 19th, 2024, only weeks after the prohibition went into effect.
“The Commission communicated with the regulated community, including providing an opportunity for comment prior to deciding whether to prohibit NCAA player proposition wagers in Ohio,” says the notice of violation that was sent to DraftKings in June. “DraftKings participated in the comment period and was provided notification of the wagering catalog change in advance of the March 1, 2024 implementation date.”
Cash-funded accounts at “non-gaming retail locations” are not permitted in Ohio. However, the investigation also discovered DraftKings accepted nearly 41,000 deposits fitting that category for a total amount of $2.5 million between January 1st, 2023, and March 5th, 2024.
Casino Control Commission Chair Thomas Stickrath said in a press release, “The Commission is steadfast in its efforts to ensure Ohio’s sportsbooks are in compliance with all gaming-related laws, and we will not hesitate to take administrative action, when necessary, in order to maintain the integrity of gaming and to protect Ohio’s citizens.”
