The final days of August are here. But the New York sports betting landscape still awaits the arrival of its newest member.
Earlier this month, Penn Entertainment executives targeted the end of this month to launch ESPN Bet in the Empire State. Now, according to a report from Newsday, the company expects the online sportsbook to go live “sometime in the next few weeks.”
“We’re ready to go,” Mark Walker, executive vice president for ESPN Bet, recently told Newsday.
“Just press that button to launch, as soon as New York says we can.”
ESPN Bet looks to join NY sports betting market within next month
Walker noted that it was “reasonable to believe” that ESPN Bet NY would launch within the next month, noting that he didn’t see any red flags or hurdles that would prevent that from happening.
During Penn Entertainment’s most recent earnings call, Aaron LaBerge, the company’s chief technology officer, said that the hope was for ESPN Bet to go live “in late August.”
Penn CEO Jay Snowden continued to emphasize that timeline, at one point noting that ESPN Bet would be “live in New York before college football week one.”
Of course, the first college football games kicked off this past weekend, a time known as “Week 0” that featured only four games. This weekend will see the rest of the NCAA getting into the regular season, starting with 21 games on Thursday night.
The NFL will kick off its regular season on Sept. 5.
ESPN Bet still confident it can compete with big dogs
ESPN Bet will take the place of WynnBet Sportsbook, which closed up shop at the end of July.
Penn, of course, acquired the operator’s license for $25 million earlier this year.
Despite the industry being dominated by the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings (who have combined for nearly 74% of all handle since the industry launched and nearly 80% of all revenue), Penn has not wavered from its stance that ESPN Bet can compete in New York.
The latest example came from Walker, who told Newsday:
“We did the research, and particularly younger fans out there, they feel that there’s a place for ESPN in sports betting,” Walker said. “In fact, they insist on it. A lot of those people live in New York.”
