ESPN BET Launches Without New York in the Fold

ESPN BET Launches Without New York in the Fold
Fact Checked by Michael Peters

The much-anticipated launch of ESPN Bet took place on Tuesday afternoon and the Empire State missed out on the party.

ESPN BET is now live across many states where Penn Entertainment’s Barstool-to-ESPN BET rebrand took place — Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. But ESPN BET New York was not on the list.

The state currently caps the number of active sportsbooks at nine and has reached capacity. New York sports betting launched on Jan. 8, 2022, with four platforms and currently has nine mobile sports betting providers operational. One of those operators, BallyBet, was off the grid for four months (19 weeks in total) and returned earlier this week as they were transitioning to a new Kambi-powered sports betting platform.

Must be 21+ to participate & present in NY. Gambling problem? Call (877-8-HOPENY) or text HOPENY (467369). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in NY, NV, or Puerto Rico.

PENN to Pay ESPN More Than $1 Billion

PENN Entertainment is to pay ESPN $150 million a year for 10 years, with an out clause after three years and again after seven. Depending on performance, ESPN was also granted up to $500 million in warrants to buy shares of PENN stock.

The quickest way ESPN BET could enter the New York market would be to acquire an existing license from one of the nine operators in the state. The big four in the state — FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars and BetMGM New York — account for about 95% of the betting market and are presumably untouchable. PointsBet recently sold to Fanatics Sportsbook New York. That would leave Rush Street Interactive’s BetRivers, WynnBET, the aforementioned Bally Bet and Resorts World Bet.

A longer way for ESPN BET to enter the market would require legislative action to increase the number of approved sports betting operators in the state past nine. In October, the state went over the $2 billion mark in mobile handle, generating $2.007 billion (mobile only), a solid 14.1% jump from September’s $1.759 billion and a significant 29.9% increase from October 2022 ($1.543 billion). The previous record of $1.788 billion was recorded in January. Last month's figure was a $217.83 million jump over the old mark. 

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Author

Lou Monaco

Lou Monaco had been East Coast Scene columnist for Gaming Today in Las Vegas since June 2019, covering the East Coast sportsbook scene with emphasis on NJ and PA. He also currently is a part-time writer for the high school sports department for NJ Advanced Media (NJ.com) in Iselin, NJ. Lou has over 30 years sports experience with previous stints at ESPN SportsTicker, Daily Racing Form and Oddschecker.

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