Penn to Rebrand Barstool as ESPN Bet Under $1.5 Billion Deal

We underestimated just how tough it is for myself and Barstool to operate in a regulated world … every time we did something, it was one step forward, two steps back. In a quickly-moving turn of events, Penn Entertainment and ESPN announced late Tuesday that they had formed a ten-year, $1.5 billion strategic alliance under which the operator would rebrand its Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet Sportsbook.

Disney, which owns ESPN, has long been rumored to be interested in entering the sports betting market. The partnership announced Tuesday aligns with what a gaming industry analyst and a former Disney executive told US Gaming Review in an exclusive last September — namely, that Disney was more likely interested in partnering with an existing operator, and that it could pursue sports betting without damaging its family-friendly reputation.

The deal calls for “inclusion of a Hollywood-branded integrated iCasino product” with ESPN Bet, according to a 13-page presentation that Penn and ESPN also released on Tuesday. That means Hollywood Casino will replace Barstool Casino in four states — Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

But the ESPN Bet name won’t be deployed everywhere. A second online sportsbook brand owned by Penn, theScore Bet, will continue to operate under that name in Canada.

Penn also confirmed that it had divested all of its shares in Barstool Sports to Dave Portnoy, the controversial founder of Barstool.

Each of the three developments — the rebrand of Barstool as ESPN Bet, the inclusion of Hollywood Casino in the rebranded ESPN Bet platform, and the sale of Barstool Sports to Portnoy — on their own would be considered transformative of the US sports betting space.