Penn Entertainment announced it will add another level of personalization to ESPN Bet with its FanCenter hub.
Whether that will be enough to help ESPN Bet gain share during NFL betting is yet to be seen. Penn is entering a critical stage of its multi-billion-dollar partnership with Disney as either side can opt out next August and the joint venture has not hit its expected sports betting market share milestones yet.
Aaron LaBerge, Penn’s chief technology officer and head of interactive that joined the company from Disney last year, shared his excitement for the feature on Twitter (X) Monday:
“With the NFL season kicking off in a month, we’re excited to announce FanCenter…a new ESPN BET feature merging media, betting, and fantasy like never before. Can’t wait for football season to debut what we’ve built with ESPN. A feature we’ve dreamed about for a loooong time!”
New ESPN Bet features
Monday‘s press release from Penn suggests many of the long-awaited features for ESPN Bet will be available through FanCenter when the NFL season kicks off Sept. 4.
ESPN Bet customers that have their ESPN Fantasy account linked to their betting account will see a section that includes player props and custom parlays based on their favorite teams, their betting history and their fantasy football rosters. The update stretches to the fantasy app as well with a “Find a Bet” icon that will let bettors view markets related to their roster and add bets directly to an ESPN Bet slip.
These are the integrations that CEO Jay Snowden talked up in Penn’s first quarter earnings call:
“Look, we’re finally getting to the point, after being live with ESPN Bet for a year and a half, where the real deep integrations that we all were excited about when we did the deal and shook hands, those are all starting to happen now,” Snowden said.
“Having that linkage between ESPN and ESPN Bet, and now you go onto our betting app and your favorite teams are all right on the top of the home screen and so you can scroll through and see if you want to place bets with your favorite teams because we have that information.”
Penn, Disney wanted double-digit share
ESPN Bet has not generated the market share either side wanted when the partnership was announced in August 2023. Penn gave three market share scenarios for 2027 based on a total addressable market of $15 billion for sports betting and $14 billion for online casino:
| Adj. EBITDA | Sports betting share | iGaming share | Blended adj. EBITDA margin, GGR |
| $500 million | 10% | 8% | 16% |
| $700 million | 15% | 12% | 17% |
| $1 billion | 20% | 16% | 18% |
While Snowden did not say what the minimum share would be to avoid either side calling it quits in year three, he noted that 10% share of sports betting is where the two would be “excited” about ESPN Bet’s progress.
ESPN Bet market share has lagged
Penn was transparent with shareholders in April, when Chairman David Handler and Snowden co-penned a shareholder letter with its proxy statement for its annual meeting in June. The two called out the disappointing share and noted they can pull out of the multi-billion-dollar cash and stock deal if things do not turn around.
“That said, our market share and financial performance in sports betting to date has not met our expectations,” the letter read. “Our Board and management team are moving swiftly and decisively to recalibrate execution and unlock the full value of this partnership. We have a committed partner and shared desire to compete and build share in a financially responsible way.
“While our initial integrations have expanded reach and driven customer acquisition, we recognize there’s more work to do to deliver on the full potential. As mentioned on our Q4 earnings call, we are optimistic that our joint efforts with ESPN will deliver improved results over the coming quarters, but we maintain optionality and control of our future in this vertical if this does not prove to be the case.”
LSR data shows ESPN Bet has a handle share of 2.8% with a revenue share of 2.5% for this year through June 2025. Share during the 2024 football season was a bit worse with handle share flat but revenue share down at 2.2%.
Lifetime share since ESPN Bet launched in November 2023 is 3.2% of handle and 2.8% of revenue.
Penn earnings announced Thursday
Penn’s Q2 earnings will be released Thursday morning with its conference call at 9 am Eastern. Analysts will be listening to just how much attention sports betting gets as the Q1 call focused more on online casino than sports betting than the calls have in the past.
Another call focused on iGaming could suggest a potential shift in strategy, Stifel analyst Jeffrey Stantial said in a note last month. Stantial noted “increasing probability” that Penn pulls out of the ESPN Bet deal.
That said, Penn should have plenty to discuss when it comes to iGaming given the launch of its standalone Hollywood Casino app that launched in December.
