One of the big advantages ESPN had when it launched ESPN Bet with PENN Entertainment was that it could take advantage of a massive number of potential players who already had ESPN.com accounts. That dream came true last week when the sports broadcasting giant announced that players can now link their ESPN and ESPN Bet accounts.
In practical terms, this means that a player who is already using ESPN.com as his or her primary source for sports news will be able to track their wagers on ESPN Bet, and make new ones, directly from ESPN.com. That’s a major advantage that casino affiliated sportsbooks just don’t have.
Aaron LaBerge, Chief Technology Officer at PENN Entertainment touted the new plan in a recent press release saying, “Bringing this new feature to market is an important step as we work to create a fully interconnected media and betting ecosystem between ESPN and ESPN BET. Account linking allows us to better serve and engage our users by unlocking key personalization and promotional capabilities.This feature is just the beginning of deeper integrations that will further differentiate the ESPN BET experience.”
During a recent earnings call reported on by SBC Americas, Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden pointed out some of the ways the companies can leverage this new feature saying, “Once you do the account linking, that’s when you can get really sophisticated on personalized offers, within the Fantasy app, within the ESPN media app.”
The big question now is whether or not linking ESPN.com and ESPN Bet accounts can help ESPN Bet gain some traction with US players. As of this writing, ESPN Bet holds just a three percent share of the US sports betting market.