00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - Okay, two stories here coming on ESPN Bet.
00:07 Let's touch on these.
00:09 The first one is the possibility that ESPN Bet,
00:11 one of their initial launches comes in Massachusetts.
00:15 And then the other story I wanna get to here, Mike,
00:17 is the investigation in an enforcement bureau
00:19 looking into the Penn ESPN agreement.
00:22 So do wanna find out what's going on there as well.
00:25 - Yeah, Craig, so this kind of just seems like
00:28 more of a procedural thing, right?
00:29 Penn Entertainment is rebranding
00:32 from Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN Bet.
00:34 So the investigations and enforcement bureau
00:37 in Massachusetts, they kind of vet
00:39 all these licenses agreements with the sportsbooks, right?
00:42 When, you know, better was going on,
00:43 Jake Paul went in front of the Massachusetts
00:45 Gaming Commission and had to answer
00:46 for a lot of legal issues in his past that IEB had found.
00:49 So, you know, you could potentially see
00:51 whether it's Penn or ESPN, you know,
00:53 have to go through that sort of vetting process
00:55 on the responsible gaming side, on the compliance side,
00:58 before they finally make that rebrand,
01:00 which Penn hopes to do in November,
01:02 where all the Barstool Sportsbooks would be ESPN Bet.
01:06 And so that's the case, you know,
01:07 hopefully in Massachusetts, you have ESPN Bet.
01:09 It's really just the rebrand, right?
01:11 I think a lot of the backend stuff with the sportsbook
01:13 that Penn's operating, it's gonna be the same as Barstool,
01:15 but that ESPN branding will be on there.
01:17 So, you know, whether it's just even the simple fact
01:19 of Barstool, when it had its license agreed to conditions
01:22 where no one under 21 was allowed
01:24 to attend its college football shows.
01:25 So ESPN has a college football show game day
01:29 at Boston College, let's just say, you know,
01:30 what under 21 kids be allowed, probably not.
01:33 I wouldn't be surprised if they put that same condition
01:35 on the ESPN branding license
01:36 that they did on Barstool Sportsbook.
01:37 Obviously we still have the can't lose parlay matter
01:40 with Dan Katz, that is still to be determined
01:44 how much Penn's gonna be fined,
01:45 if they're going to be fined at all for that infraction.
01:47 They've gotten rid of the can't lose parlay
01:48 due to the language, the responsible gaming language,
01:51 but we'll see if Penn faces,
01:53 or if Barstool faces a fine for that.
01:55 That's again, would go through IEB
01:57 and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
01:58 So yeah, I mean, I think, you know,
01:59 I'd be super surprised if this doesn't work out
02:01 and, you know, Penn's able to get ESPN bet off the ground.
02:04 I'm sure Massachusetts Gaming Commission's happy.
02:06 They don't have to deal with Portnoy, Katz,
02:08 all those people that, you know, had caused them problems,
02:10 had caused Barstool,
02:12 or at least that Penn-Barstool agreement problems, right?
02:14 Which is why Penn said,
02:15 "Hey, we're happy to get out of this and pay, you know,
02:17 ESPN $2 billion to use its name
02:20 because all these problems, right,
02:21 that Portnoy has talked about it.
02:22 He's, as he's, you know, left this, you know,
02:26 legal agreement, right, that Barstool had, you know,
02:28 just that anything he said could be used against him.
02:30 In his words, again, I don't necessarily agree with that,
02:32 but just, you know,
02:34 the muddied waters there with the Barstool thing.
02:37 I think ESPN potentially could be on better footing,
02:39 but again, that causes the question
02:40 what you and I have talked about before with, you know,
02:42 Shams and the NBA draft now potentially have Wojcic,
02:44 Schefter, you know, they've said those guys
02:46 are gonna be on Daily Wager,
02:47 but then are other analysts
02:48 gonna be talking about their reporting?
02:50 Is that gonna be moving the odds?
02:51 Obviously that's something, again,
02:52 as we look toward, you know, golf betting
02:54 and fans being able to chirp at players now
02:56 because more betting on the game.
02:58 Now you've got this other inside or a potential conflict,
03:02 you know, with news, right,
03:03 being so important when you're making sports bets
03:05 and having that insider info
03:07 potentially to get an advantage on odds movement
03:09 or moving the lines yourself, you know,
03:10 how that's gonna play in.
03:11 So I think those are just some things that, you know,
03:13 we'll see talked about.
03:14 I don't think this is the end of the issue,
03:16 potentially only the beginning of these issues,
03:18 but yeah, something to watch here as, you know,
03:20 Massachusetts moves forward with this rebranding
03:24 and potentially, you know, ESPN bet going live
03:26 in Massachusetts and several other jurisdictions
03:28 by November.
03:29 (upbeat music)
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