Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden sees a very bright future for his company’s recently announced sportsbook venture with the sports broadcasting giant ESPN. During an earning call with investors earlier this week, the executive touted the deal, saying that it would ultimately capture at least 20 percent of the regulated US sports betting market. It’s a big claim, but not entirely unrealistic for a company that’s rapidly dominating the US market.
Snowden didn’t hold back on the big promises to the gathered investors on the call. He said in no uncertain terms that expects ESPN Bet to control at least 20 percent of the market within four years. “I would just say that it’s probably safe to assume that the bottom end of the range is going to be a level that we’re starting to get excited about at both ESPN and Penn and below there is not really exciting, so just sort of think about it that way,” he said in comments reported on by iGaming Business.
Notably, Snowden pointed out that ESPN Bet would not be using affiliates to build their customer base. “I think we’ve always been pretty clear that we think that because of our media relationships that we can run best-in-class customer acquisition costs,” he said.
Snowden also gently pointed out the problem his company had during its now defunct relationship with Barstool Sports saying, “It became clear we were an unnatural owner. There’s probably long-term only one natural owner of Barstool Sports and that’s Dave Portnoy.”
ESPN Bet is expected to launch sometime during November of this year.