ESPN Bet Launch Update: Waiting for the Official Release
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 What's going on with ESPN app?
00:06 Why is this not up yet?
00:07 It's 1126 in the morning here on the East Coast.
00:11 Yeah, you know, we never got a firm start time
00:14 for when this was going to go live.
00:16 And we know certainly that while it may look just to us
00:21 like it's a sticker being slapped on the barstool
00:24 to turn into ESPN,
00:25 but it's a lot more than goes on behind the scenes.
00:28 And so we don't know what's going on right now,
00:32 but we have heard from sources
00:35 that we expect this to go live in the afternoon.
00:37 So it doesn't seem like there's any big issue right now.
00:40 I don't think we'd be told it was going live this afternoon
00:43 if there was something holding it back at this point.
00:46 But yes, I mean, I'm like you, I live in Delaware.
00:49 I will not be able to bet with ESPN bet from my home,
00:52 but I have been checking to see if it's there.
00:56 And you know, you pull up the barstool app
00:58 and it says that they're doing some work
01:00 and you click on learn more.
01:01 And then it brings it to the ESPN bet site
01:03 saying that it will launch today in 17 jurisdictions
01:07 and all that fun stuff.
01:09 So yes, we are waiting for it officially.
01:12 And I think there's going to be another way
01:16 after it launches, Craig,
01:17 because if you recall,
01:19 Penn executives have been saying
01:21 that they really need to not just make this switch
01:25 into the ESPN bet,
01:26 but they have to add more servers.
01:28 They are expecting a surge of volume
01:31 that they just simply did not have when it was barstool.
01:34 Remember that barstool agreement
01:36 did not turn into what they thought,
01:38 and they only got it about 1.5 million
01:40 registered users out of it.
01:42 So when we're talking about ESPN bet here across 17 States,
01:46 who knows how many people are going to log on
01:49 this first day, this first weekend
01:51 to see what ESPN has to offer.
01:54 And so I think, yeah,
01:56 we're all anxious right now for this waiting period,
01:58 but I think maybe the anxiety starts to set in
02:00 later this week,
02:01 waiting to see if Penn servers
02:04 are going to be able to handle
02:06 what ESPN is bringing to it now.
02:09 And we're learning more about how employees of ESPN
02:14 are going to be able to interact with ESPN bet.
02:18 And it seems like ESPN is playing that pretty safely.
02:22 And I didn't expect much of otherwise, right?
02:26 I mean, it's funny when you talk about Penn
02:28 in this situation,
02:30 they went from partnering with a company
02:33 that had talked about betting
02:35 and had been involved in with betting sponsors before
02:39 and everything like that.
02:40 And now they're partnered with Mickey Mouse
02:42 and they have to be more careful about how they do this.
02:47 There are bigger things at stake for Disney
02:50 than there were for barstool.
02:52 And so they're limiting what their talent is able to do.
02:57 For example, if you're working a game
02:59 and that could be somebody running a camera,
03:01 somebody running production,
03:03 or you could be one of the sideline journalists,
03:05 you're not allowed to bet on ESPN bet
03:08 when you're covering that game.
03:12 And that seems pretty fair.
03:14 You don't know what a reporter might hear
03:17 walk on the sidelines
03:18 and might give them an edge for something in game, right?
03:21 So that seems pretty fair to me.
03:24 And obviously, they're not allowed to disclose
03:27 any confidential information.
03:29 And really the attention I think
03:32 is gonna be on the insiders, right?
03:35 Because those are the guys
03:36 that know everything before we do.
03:39 And the insiders are simply not allowed
03:41 to do pretty much anything.
03:43 And so I think when you see the guardrails
03:46 that are being put up,
03:47 I'm pretty confident that ESPN and Disney
03:50 and Penn, they're going through this the right way.
03:54 And we haven't heard anything about it so far
03:58 on ESPN yet today,
04:00 the couple of morning shows,
04:01 they haven't mentioned it.
04:03 And so I think once this goes live,
04:07 we'll see just how much is being promoted on ESPN.
04:10 I expect a lot of commercials,
04:11 but I don't know how much in show talk
04:15 we're gonna get, Craig.
04:16 But everybody is clearly excited.
04:19 This is all the makings of a potential disruptor.
04:23 And it's something we're gonna be watching
04:26 really, really close.
04:27 (upbeat music)
04:30 (bells chiming)