ESPN BET Promo Code and Review 2023

The time has come! ESPN, quite possibly the biggest name in sports, let alone sports betting, is building an online sportsbook app. ESPN BET will debut in Fall 2023, serving as the new, re-branded betting arm of Penn National Gaming. It’s a monumental move for both PNG, ESPN, and legal sports betting in the United States.

Below we’ll run down all of the current, available information on ESPN BET. This includes the Penn National Gaming deal, the rebranding of Barstool Sportsbook, when we can expect to see ESPN BET accepting wagers in the U.S., and once we have it, we’ll bring you the best ESPN BET promo code and offer available.

ESPN BET News

• ESPN announced that it’s moving the ‘Daily Wager’ program back to its Bristol Headquarters.
• PENN is targeting a 20% share of the market for ESPN BET, but can it be done? Jeff Edelstein investigates.
• ESPN has added Steve Coughlin, AKA “Stanford Steve”, to its College GameDay lineup for 2023. He will host the new ‘Steve’s 6-Pack’ segment highlighting his top bets of the college football slate. Stanford Steve has been involved in previous betting-related content on ESPN, including the popular “Bad Beats” segment alongside Scott Van Pelt.
• PENN has projected a lofty 20% sports betting market share for ESPN BET by 2027. PNG Currently holds roughly a 5% market share under the Barstool branding.
• On August 8th, 2023, Penn National Gaming announced that it had entered into an initial 10-year agreement with ESPN to operate ESPN BET, which will replace Barstool Sportsbook.

Barstool Sportsbook Out, ESPN BET In

Sending shockwaves around the legal sports betting industry in the United States, Penn National Gaming announced on August 8th, 2023 that they had agreed to a 10-year partnership with ESPN. The move from PENN and CEO Jay Snowden signals a relentless determination to make a dent in the legal sports betting market dominance that both FanDuel and DraftKings have maintained through the first years of regulated betting.

ESPN BET and PENN joining forces signals the end of the Barstool Sportsbook chapter. Less than four years after the initial, and expensive, acquisition, 100% ownership in Barstool Sports has been returned to Dave Portnoy for little more than a few restrictions and a non-compete.

Details of the PENN – ESPN Deal

• Duration: 10 years (to start!)
• Payment: ESPN receives $1.5 billion in cash payments over the initial 10-year term for the use of the ESPN BET trademark.
• Marketing: For marketing services, branding, and media promotion PENN is also granting $500 million in warrants to ESPN for the purchase of 31.8 million shares of PENN stock that will vest during the duration of the 10-year agreement.
• Termination: The PENN / ESPN deal does have a built in off-ramp. If the PENN-run ESPN BET product doesn’t meet certain performance metrics after three years, outs are available (though we don’t know the specifics).
• Barstool Sports: Barstool Sports has been sold back to Dave Portnoy who now maintains 100% ownership in the company.
  • Restrictions and non-competes will be in place
  • If sold, PENN will receive 50% of gross proceeds should Barstool sell again in the future. For what it’s worth though, Portnoy has already declared that he will never sell.

When will ESPN BET launch?

PENN CEO Jay Snowden has indicated that they are targeting a November 2023 launch for the ESPN BET platform, potentially around the Thanksgiving holiday. As more information becomes clear we’ll update this accordingly, but it seems a safe bet that ESPN BET will be available by the NFL playoffs and NCAAF bowl season at the very latest.

ESPN BET Promo Code and Bonus

ESPN BET is still very much in the works, but since the brand has aspirations to be considered amongst the best sportsbooks in the country, it’s a safe bet that the ESPN sportsbook will ultimately debut with a welcome offer that’s worth your time. For reference, Penn National’s current sports betting welcome offer with Barstool Sportsbook is a new player offer that’s worth up to $1,000 in bonus cash, but realistically any projections over what ESPN BET may roll out are purely speculative.

We’ll keep you posted as we get closer to the ESPN BET launch, but for now, we don’t know what the ESPN BET bonus will be, nor what ESPN BET promo code will be necessary to claim it. Stay tuned.

Legal States for ESPN BET

ESPN BET is taking over as Penn National’s sports betting product, which means that ESPN BET, upon launch, will have immediate reach to all of the sixteen current states that Barstool Sportsbook currently operates in. Whether they elect to debut the ESPN BET product in each state simultaneously or stagger the rollout, ESPN BET will soon have a presence in all of the states listed below:

ESPN BET Kentucky

Not listed above is the state of Kentucky which will be launching online sports betting in September 2023. The Kentucky sports betting state launch is likely to come during this interim period while Barstool Sportsbook is still running, and before ESPN BET has made its debut.

We have every expectation that ESPN BET will eventually offer betting in Kentucky. There are a total of 27 licenses up for grabs in the state, and it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where ESPN BET does not have one.

We now know that Barstool Sportsbook has applied, and been approved for a betting license in Kentucky. It seems likely that PENN will launch Barstool Sportsbook in the state of Kentucky on, or around the September 28th “go live” date… and then later pivot Kentucky, like other states, over to ESPN BET later on in Q4. Ellis Entertainment is listed as their licensing partner.

ESPN BET app

The future ESPN BET app has the potential to be a major player in the regulated sports betting market. However, in order to compete with the best, the ESPN BET app will have to offer general performance and features that the modern bettor has come to expect on other top betting apps.

In a Q1 2023 earnings call PENN CEO Jay Snowden referenced the companies current betting platform as “an inferior product”. PENN and Barstool responded by completely reworking their betting app. During the 2023 MLB All-Star weekend, one of the slowest betting weekends of the year, Barstool was taken offline temporarily for a complete overhaul. During the downtime Barstool transitioned off of Kambi’s third-party betting platform and on to its own in-house product. Once Barstool is rebranded as ESPN BET, this tech improvement will allow ESPN BET to push its ceiling much higher.

Barstool Sportsbook reskinned

For now, if you want a preview of what ESPN BET will look like when it launches later this year – look no further than the current Barstool Sportsbook product. While some changes and improvements will assuredly be made, the core of the ESPN BET experience is expected be a reskinned version of the current Barstool betting product.

The current Barstool Sportsbook app has received solid reviews through the iOS and Android app stores.

• Barstool Sportsbook iOS rating: 4.7 Stars / 28.6K Ratings
• Barstool Sportsbook Android rating: 3 Stars / 2.08K Reviews

… add in the recent updates to the platform and we can expect the ESPN Sportsbook app to receive similar, if not higher scores in the future.

ESPN BET payment options

We don’t expect ESPN BET to do anything groundbreaking with their deposit and cash out options. The following sports betting banking options are available on Barstool and we expect them to also serve as options for ESPN BET, too. We’ll make adjustments here if needed once we’ve had an opportunity to use the app ourselves in November.

• Online Banking
• Wire Transfer
• Credit / Debit Cards
• PayNearMe
• PayPal
• ACH / eCheck

Betting content on ESPN

ESPN has come a long way to fully embrace sports betting, and sports betting related content. Currently on their website there’s even a dedicated menu drop down specifically for sports betting. If desired, you can even pin it to the nav bar. On it you’ll find information on odds, lines, noteworthy bets, and tips.

In addition to the Daily Wager and Erin Kate Dolan’s YouTube clips, segments like “Bad Beats” on SportsCenter with SVP have become among the most popular weekly offerings.

Daily Wager – Schedule and info

• Thursday and Friday: 6:00pm ET on ESPN2
• Monday: 4:00pm ET on ESPN2
• Saturday: 11:00 am ET on ESPN2
• Sunday: 9:00 am ET on ESPN2

The Daily Wager is ESPN’s flagship betting program, and we expect ESPN BET’s offerings to be featured heavily once the sportsbook has officially launched. The program airs five days a week, from Thursday – Monday, taking a brief 2-day hiatus on the football-less days of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Barstool Sportsbook Timeline

• January 2020: Penn National Gaming announced that they had acquired a 36% stake in Barstool Sports for the fee of $163 million.
  • The deal included a path for PENN to increase its ownership stake over time.
• September 2020: The much anticipated Barstool Sportsbook app made its debut in Pennsylvania.
• August 2021: PENN / Barstool Sportsbook applies for a sports betting license in the state of New York, and is ultimately not approved.
• August 2022: PENN exercised its option to acquire 100% ownership of Barstool Sports in a deal worth $450 million.
• June 2023: Barstool’s marketing choices are called into question by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission over their ‘Can’t Lose’ Parlay branding.
• August 2023: PENN announces their 10-year agreement with ESPN to operate ESPN BET, signaling the end of Barstool Sportsbook.
  • Barstool Sports is sold back to Dave Portnoy with sports betting non-competes in place.
• November 2023: November is the target date for the official rebranding of Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN BET.

ESPN BET FAQ