The largest identify in U.S. sports activities broadcasting is placing its cash on the profitable playing business, launching a web-based betting platform that can initially be out there in 17 states. 

ESPN teamed with Penn Entertainment, a supplier of sports activities content material and on line casino gaming experiences that beforehand launched the sportsbook for Barstool Sports, to create the betting service, dubbed ESPN Bet. The platform went stay for signups on Thursday, however nonetheless wants approval from gaming commissions in every state. 

ESPN is plunging into the sports activities wagering enterprise as mother or father firm Disney seems to spice up income throughout the leisure large. Yet whereas playing has exploded as a rising variety of states legalize it, the broadcaster will face entrenched opponents within the type of DraftKings and FanDuel, which management roughly 80% of the net sports activities betting market,

“ESPN and Penn believe they can infiltrate this market,” Andrew Brandt, a sports activities enterprise professor at Villanova University, instructed CBS MoneyWatch. “They want to make it like one-stop shopping where you go to check the score and there’s your betting opinions right there. They think they can offer a better product.”

The states that first will provide ESPN Bet are:

• Arizona
• Colorado
• Illinois 
• Indiana 
• Iowa 
• Kansas 
• Kentucky 
• Louisiana 
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan 
• New Jersey 
• Ohio 
• Pennsylvania
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• West Virginia

Creating ESPN Bet is a strategic transfer for each Penn and ESPN. The broadcaster needs to develop income by serving sports activities playing fanatics, whereas Penn was in search of a brand new sports activities betting accomplice after severing its partnership with Barstool, Brandt stated,

For each firms, what’s at stake is grabbing a chunk of the quickly rising sports activities playing business. Revenue at DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars Sportsbook and BetMGM soared during the pandemic as extra followers with time on their fingers positioned bets. Those firms gained much more steam lately as extra states legalized on-line sports activities playing.  

$100 billion in bets

Online sports activities betting is now authorized in 27 states, and Americans are anticipated to wager greater than $100 billion on the pastime this 12 months, according to the American Gaming Association. 

“It’s a fertile market even though it’s saturated,” Brandt stated. “With sports betting so legalized and so mainstream, it’s becoming a way to really infiltrate that younger demographic.”

Despite its pedigree overlaying sports activities, ESPN is a comparatively late entry into betting. Most present sports activities playing firms arrange store inside months of a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that struck down a federal legislation barring playing on soccer, basketball, baseball and different sports activities. Sports merchandise firm Fanatics additionally launched a web-based sportsbook in August. 

The development sports activities betting has some addiction experts worried. Others, like NCAA President Charlie Baker, are frightened about how sports activities playing will affect faculty athletics. 

Baker not too long ago instructed CBS News there might be intense strain on student-athletes to carry out effectively in faculty sports activities as a result of a member of the family or buddy has wager on the competition. 

“The fact that it’s now on your phone [and] you can do it anytime you want, it’s a real challenge — not just for us, but for student-athletes,” Baker told CBS News earlier this month.