A Quick Update On How ESPN Bet Is Doing
The most interesting data in the sports betting industry (at least to me) right now is the performance of ESPN Bet. With a lot of data in from March, let’s get up to speed.
I’ve aggregated numbers from six states for March where we get handle and an operator breakdown by handle: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, Indiana and Iowa. This doesn’t include New Jersey, which offers operator breakdowns by revenue but not handle.
Here are the topline takeaways:
ESPN Bet holds a blended marketshare of just under 6% by handle in those states. It ranges from a high-water mark of around 7% in PA to just over 4% in Indiana and Iowa.
It seems like ESPN Bet has settled in (for now) as a clear No. 4 behind FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM, in that order.
There is a lot of noise in performance by revenue, which is why I am emphasizing the handle metric here. (It was around 5% in NJ by revenue, since that’s what we have).
If the data that ESPN Bet is in the teens by share for active users is accurate, there’s a rather large disconnect between those figures and how much money is being bet at the sportsbook.
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So as always, it’s choose your own adventure for ESPN Bet’s prospects: Glass half full or half empty?
I look at these numbers and I don’t see much to get excited about. It’s an improvement over Barstool Sportsbook, to be sure, but I expected a bigger bump from the ESPN Bet launch in November. At a minimum, I would have hoped for initial adoption to consistently surpass MGM’s numbers, given the weight of an ESPN marketing push at the end of 2023. Instead, we’re left with a muddy second tier that is MGM, ESPN, Caesars and Bet365 (for the states they’re in) and soon Fanatics.
If you’re glass half full, you’d say ESPN Bet is hanging in there despite ramping down promotional spend after launch. You’d say it’s early days for integration of the partnership between Penn and ESPN, and a new version of the sportsbook product is on the way.
With the arrival of April, we’re into the part of the U.S. calendar when sports betting activity and acquisition slows until football returns in late summer. That’s where the rubber meets the road, and it’s feasible ESPN makes a big push then. Until then, ESPN Bet is not going to push DraftKings and FanDuel, and just trying to establish itself as a clear No. 3 will be the first goal come the fall.
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