PENN Entertainment announced Monday it has named Disney’s Aaron LaBerge as its Chief Technology Officer.
LaBerge’s first day at PENN Entertainment will be July 1, subject to regulatory approvals, and he will report directly to PENN CEO & President Jay Snowden. LaBerge had been at The Walt Disney Company for more than 20 years spanning two stints, separated by a 5 1/2-year period as a technology entrepreneur.
In his latest stint at Disney, he was President and CTO for Disney Entertainment and ESPN. LaBerge was responsible for technology and product development for the company’s two media divisions. His arrival at PENN Entertainment comes at a time when the gaming company is trying to carve out space for ESPN BET as one of the top sports betting apps in the space behind FanDuel and DraftKings.
“We are thrilled to have someone of Aaron's caliber join our PENN executive team,” Snowden said in a statement released by PENN Entertainment. “Having overseen a global organization of thousands of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, and data scientists that created some of the largest scale and most successful media properties in the world, there is no better candidate to lead our Technology and Interactive division into its future.