ESPN Eyes Sports Betting: Seeks Partner for Sportsbook Launch

ESPN is seeking a betting partner to help launch a sportsbook. Disney CEO Bob Chapek confirmed the network's interest in sports betting, stating that ESPN will partner with a third party rather than operate a sportsbook itself. “We at ESPN have the ability to do that. Now we’re going to need a partner to do that, because we’re never going to be a book, that’s never in the cards for the Walt Disney Company. But at the same time, to be able to partner with a well-respected third party can do that for us.”

Activist investor Daniel Loeb's Third Point took a new stake in Disney, raising its holding to 0.4% of the company, worth around $1bn. Loeb suggested that ESPN could pursue sports betting more easily as a standalone entity. He said: “ESPN would have greater flexibility to pursue business initiatives that may be more difficult as part of Disney, such as sports betting. We believe that most arrangements between the two companies can be replicated contractually, in the way eBay spun PayPal while continuing to utilize the product to process payments.”

However, Loeb backed off from his initial stance after Disney CEO Bob Chapek's speech at the annual D23 conference. Disney revealed its streaming and theatrical slate at the D23 conference, including highly anticipated films and series. Chapek said the slate represented the end of a coronavirus-induced production bottleneck. “This is our new steady state [of production],” he said, saying that both the pace of production and the size of its content budget — about $30bn — would remain level.