On the other hand, ESPN, which used to own sports completely in the US, doesn’t anymore; Iger made that clear when he essentially put out an open call for investors earlier this summer. And this deal can be seen as another indicator of that reduced status. This afternoon, I asked gambling and media executives why ESPN hadn’t made a deal with more established gambling companies, either old-school brands like MGM or new digital leaders like DraftKings and FanDuel. Their answer: Those guys didn’t need ESPN to thrive in sports betting. And they certainly wouldn’t rebrand their existing sports betting operations with ESPN.
What does the deal tell us about the state of sports gambling in the US? It’s really big. It’s Disney-doing-an-about-face big. Sports betting is now legal in more than 30 states — though notably not yet in California — and Americans have spent more than $220 billion on it since 2018. Another sign of its clout: Apple, which tightly controls the way developers can use its apps — it still won’t allow porn apps, for instance — shows no signs of preventing people from betting using its devices.
What does it tell us about Barstool Sports? This is a glass part-empty, part-pretty-full scenario for the company and its owner and founder, Dave Portnoy. On the one hand, the fact that Penn is swapping out Barstool for ESPN is a clear admission that the Barstool deal didn’t work for Penn. In a video he posted on Twitter today, Portnoy uncharacteristically noted that the fit hadn’t worked — and then more characteristically blamed the press: “We underestimated just how tough it is for myself and Barstool to operate in a regulated world,” he said, noting critical investigative pieces about himself published by the Times and Insider.
Emergency Press Conference – I Bought Back Barstool Sports pic.twitter.com/dmUk0eNowx
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 8, 2023
On the other hand! Penn paid Portnoy and his investors more than $500 million over the last three years, including $388 million it paid out earlier this year. Now Portnoy has bought back the company — presumably at a very steep discount to the price Penn paid — and can do whatever he wants.
Article Appeared @https://www.vox.com/2023/8/8/23825199/disney-espn-penn-barstool-2-billion-deal-explained