PENN Launches New iGaming App Ahead of the Holidays

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00:00Let's start off here with Penn opening a new sports book, so to speak, new app.

00:09I know it's based around the Hollywood Casino.

00:11You'll have to tell us a little bit more about what that is and how it works.

00:16But for those people unfamiliar, Penn, Penn Entertainment, Penn Gaming, now part of ESPN

00:20Bet.

00:21So I'm guessing they are fronting this entire thing.

00:24Yep, you're 100% right, Craig.

00:26Ahead of the holidays, Penn decided now was a good time to launch its standalone iGaming

00:32app, which is an app you can play online blackjack or another kind of game on from your pocket.

00:39They launched it in Pennsylvania, and previously it had been pretty hard to actually get to

00:46any of Penn's iGaming apps.

00:48You had to go through the ESPN Bet app, which you alluded to, and then somehow there was

00:53some place in the app you would have to find it and then translate, essentially switch

00:57you over to this new app.

00:58So if you know anything about tech, if you know anything about gambling, it's wanting

01:02to make things as frictionless as possible.

01:04This is Penn's sort of attempt to do that, is having their own separate app.

01:08A lot of sports betting is, frankly, all been about how do we get people to become people

01:13who play online casino, people who play online games.

01:17If you listen to any of these companies' earnings calls, what they tell investors, it's really

01:21the endgame strategy for all these folks.

01:24Sports betting is great, but for a lot of them, it's not this huge cash cow.

01:28It's more of a way to funnel people over to this other form of gambling.

01:31It's a lot higher margin when you're playing a blackjack game against the house versus

01:35betting on the spread of a college football playoff, for example.

01:38So you see Penn expand.

01:41Pennsylvania is obviously their biggest state.

01:43They have a bunch of properties there.

01:44The name is Penn, Pennsylvania.

01:47That's where their brand is.

01:49They've kind of taken a long time over the past year to roll out a lot of their new features.

01:54Obviously, they switched over from Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN Bet.

01:58That might have taken a little bit longer than maybe some people had hoped.

02:00We've talked about other technology developments with the app and tying it to ESPN.

02:05That's taken a little bit longer, but launching the standalone Hollywood Casino brand app

02:09is actually ahead of schedule.

02:10They were hoping to do that over the first few months of 2025.

02:14I would say that's notable because Penn usually takes a long time.

02:18In this circumstance, they were ahead of expectations.

02:20So we'll have to see if this is a good rollout and if they can translate it over to other

02:24states where they have their brand, like Michigan and West Virginia.

02:28But a good sign of things to come, I would say, for Penn, a company that's had a tough

02:32go of the whole gaming experience so far as they hope to get back on track.

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