ESPN Bet and ESPN believe that the gambling platform’s newest functionality — account linking to the media site — is a game changer.
When it comes to sports betting platforms, a key driver of success is differentiation. Some platforms lean into massive bet menus. Others lean into high limits. And still others lean into microbetting. ESPN Bet is leaning into … ESPN.
And it believes connecting the Worldwide Leader in Sports with a like-branded betting app gives it a serious advantage.
“The assumptions you can draw are that the individual who links is betting more often,” Mike Morrison, vice president of ESPN Bet and ESPN Fantasy, told iGB. “Perhaps some of the bets are of higher value and we’re able to identify different kinds of betting behaviour. This group of fans that are playing fantasy or betting are a high-value player … they’re going to be a very valuable customer for ESPN, so we want to find ways to engage them.”
Toggle between apps
To that end, ESPN Bet announced 1 November that the betting app and media platform are now linked. This means that customers of ESPN Bet can track their bets on either the wagering app or the traditional ESPN media app. They also have access to watch any game that ESPN has the rights to on the betting app. It takes less than a minute to link accounts.
Morrison said the platform in late November introduced “gamecast and watch” onto the app. This means that bettors in the wagering app will see an icon appear if the game is available and they can simply click to watch the game without having to leave ESPN Bet.
ESPN and ESPN Bet will continue to offer players new ways to toggle between apps. The experience, so far, has been a lot of “test and learn,” Morrison said.
On the technology side, the linking function means that Penn Entertainment, ESPN Bet’s technology partner, and ESPN can see what consumers want. For example, ESPN Bet will be able to “better curate” bets as the technology tracks what a consumer is interested in.
ESPN and ESPN Bet have been cross promoting since the initial ESPN Bet launch 11 November 2023. ESPN personalities are part of the ESPN Bet advertising landscape. And ESPN Bet is now part of the ESPN experience. App linking is just one more way to break down the walls between the experiences.
The 10-year venture is the first of its kind with a US gambling company and US media company teaming up for sports betting. But it is not the first in North America. TheScore, a Canadian sports media platform, introduced a betting app, theScoreBet, in New Jersey in 2019. Three years later, when digital betting went live in Canada, the company launched its app there, as well.
Bring on ‘BetMode’
Penn was involved in that deal too. On 19 October 2021, Penn completed a $2 billion (£1.5 billion/€1.9 billion) acquisition of theScore. The deal was announced two months earlier, and theScore and Penn had a working relationship dating to 2018. Because of that, Penn had a front-row seat to the launch and integration of theScoreBet.
The biggest takeaway from that integration for ESPN Bet folks is theScoreBet’s “BetMode.” Essentially, in BetMode, theScore users can get odds in real time and “expedited” scoring updates, according to the Sports Business Journal. But after the initial integration, theScore took things a few steps further — consumers can create betslips within the media app and be signed into the wagering app with facial recognition.
Morrison said the ESPN Bet executive team “loves the idea of BetMode.” It seems likely that ESPN and ESPN Bet users will see similar innovations going forward.
“There’s a strong interconnectivity there,” Morrison said of BetMode. “It’s analogous to what we are aiming for in the US. Now we’re trying to make it seamless and intuitive for you. We love the idea of giving that choice to players, and as we enter into future we’ll have more of that.”
The technology, Morrison said, is “there,” but ESPN and ESPN Bet continue to work out how best to market it.
JP Morgan sees upside
In general, analysts have not been high on Penn Entertainment stock. But the partnership with ESPN, wrote JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff 12 December, is reason for positive thinking.
“We have long-held the view that some degree of ESPN Bet success is the single biggest driver for the stock, and still see that as the case,” he wrote, while noting that his view is contrarian. In the note, he increased the projected share price from $19-$27 and, by 2026, a positive return on cash flow on the digital side.
According to a December Susquehanna industry update, ESPN Bet had the lowest market share — 1.5% — of all national operators in November. For comparison, DraftKings and FanDuel combined for 78% market share.
As time passes and more data is available, Penn and ESPN will use that information to further leverage the linking. The hope is that account linking will help ESPN Bet become a major player in the national betting landscape.
FOMO, fantasy and more
In the early going, Morrison said he’d already learned something new. The ESPN-ESPN Bet linking function had been active for two weeks ahead of the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson heavyweight fight. Netflix broadcasted the fight and struggled with technical difficulties due to the volume of people trying to watch. Morrison said the fight was an “unexpected big driver” of new accounts.
“It was just a reminder that events that have a high degree of participation can create FOMO,” he said.
He’s also learned that there are a “wide range of fans who bet and what we are able to do is serve all those fans.”
During the ESPN Edge event, Morrison said that tens of thousands of consumers had tried the functionality in the first week it was active, according to Forbes. And that number continues to grow as consumers experiment.
In the final analysis, the goal will be to meet fans where they are. Account linking, Morrison said, will help ESPN Bet to do that. While digital sports betting isn’t legal in every US state, ESPN Bet and other companies are already offering fantasy products in states like California and Texas.
Like DraftKings and FanDuel, ESPN Bet is building a database of customers that it can convert to digital betting when legalisation does happen. Unlike DraftKings and FanDuel, ESPN Bet can offer a massive streaming menu and one-touch access to a kind of sports media not available anywhere else in the world.
“In the future, if and when sports betting becomes legal (in those markets), we’ll already be in the market and we would want to have everything available to customers,” Morrison said. “We love to tie things together.
“We’re seeking to lead with fans in terms of product experience, ecosystem. This is an expectation they have, this is a storytelling play, this is an audience expansion play.”