When PENN Entertainment re-skins its digital wagering platform with the ESPN BET brand next month, it will take the “Worldwide Leader” online for sports betting in about 18 U.S. jurisdictions from Massachusetts to Arizona, in states where Barstool Sportsbook is currently legal and live.
But where ESPN BET may be is at least as interesting as where it be. PENN Entertainment doesn’t have market access in New York, the biggest legal sports betting state in the U.S., or Connecticut, ESPN’s home state. There are potentially ways into both after WynnBET unwound its wagering platform and abandoned licenses across the country and Connecticut Lottery partner Rush Street Interactive broke its contract a year in, leaving the lottery searching for a new partner.
There are also licenses available in Arkansas, Maine, Nebraska, newly legal North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and Vermont – the latter of which a state in which PENN has applied for a license.
The expectation is that PENN will unveil its new ESPN BET platform across the country on single day, though neither company will say what that day will be. PENN executives have publicly pointed to a November launch date, and ‘s Eric Raskin makes a great case for that date to arrive by Nov. 20. But no matter what the date, ESPN BET’s goal would appear to include being everywhere all at once.