Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden told analysts Thursday morning that the company and ESPN agreed to terminate their exclusive U.S. online sports betting agreement now rather than waiting for an option window next summer because it has become clear they would fall short of goals.
“We could see through the first couple of months of football season, while we’re making a lot of improvements in a number of areas, we weren’t on a trajectory to get to that level of market share,” Snowden said, referring to the double-digit target that would have made them the No. 3 US sportsbook. “And so you know where it’s headed. Why string this along? Let’s get together and figure out the best path forward for both companies.”
The most recent publicly available reports from state regulators show ESPN Bet accounted for only 3.2% of handle in the 14 states that reveal figures from individual sportsbook brands, tied for sixth with Bet365.
“We’ll still very likely be an advertising partner of theirs,” Snowden said. “There’s no hard feelings. We had aspirations. We had goals to be a podium player. It didn’t work out and we’re moving along from that and they are too. And I think that’s perfectly fine.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sportsbusinessjournal.com ’
