How ESPN & Caesars Partnership Will Bring Sports Betting Content to Mainstream Media

Two of the biggest names in their industries, ESPN and Caesars Entertainment, agreed to a partnership in May 2019. The partnership is another example of media giants looking to get into the ever-growing legal sports betting market. Another blockbuster media/sports betting partnership was formed in May as well. FOX Sports teamed up with The Stars Group. The two will create FOX Bet, a sports betting app that will be launching later this year. We can expect to see some more deals like this as legal sports betting continues to make its way to more and more states across the country.

What To Expect From ESPN and Caesars

– The Linq Hotel-Casino, located on the Las Vegas strip, will have an ESPN-branded studio created inside it. The studio will be focused on sports betting and is expected to launch in 2020.

– Caesars’ sports betting data and branding will be ESPN’s new go to. They replaced the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook for all of its sports betting odds related content.

– More sports betting-themed content will be created on ESPN, similar to the show “Daily Wager“.

The legal sports betting market is reaching more states each year. This partnership will help sports betting content reach a wider audience. According to a 2018 Langer Research Associates study, “more than two-thirds of avid sports bettors” consume ESPN’s content. This wide reach will give Caesars’and its platforms the opportunity to reach out to consumers across the country where legal sports betting is available.

This partnership, as well as the other ones that have formed in the media world, shows just how these giant companies are looking to get into the sports betting market. Everyone is looking to create the best partnerships to better attack the market. Sportsbooks need to reach as much of a target audience as possible and ESPN can help Caesars do just that. On the other side, ESPN got into the sports betting market with one of the biggest names in gambling. A win-win for sure.

Sports Betting Market too Lucrative to Avoid

More businesses are starting to realize the impact that legal sports betting will have on this country. The idea of a fully mature sports betting market across the country is too lucrative for these big businesses to avoid. Even for those like Disney, whose CEO has said they wouldn’t be entering the gambling industry.

Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive of ESPN parent company Disney, said he saw his company working with the gambling industry. Not so much “entering” it.

“We’ll provide programming that will, I guess, be designed to enlighten people who are betting on sports, but that’s as far as we would go. I think you’ll see more of it integrated in the programming, but we just don’t intend to go into the gambling business.”

Looks like this multi-billion dollar industry was too much for Disney to ignore. Eilers and Krejcik Gaming, a top gambling-research firm, estimates that the sports betting market could reach $6.5 billion in revenue by the year 2023.

What ESPN and Caesars Had to Say

ESPN’s Vice President of Business Development spoke to the evolving sports betting landscape in the United States. “The sports betting landscape has changed, and fans are coming to us for this kind of information more than ever before. We are poised to expand our coverage in a big way.”

Chris Holdren, chief marketing officer at Caesars Entertainment, expressed his companies excitement on the deal. “Millions of sports fans look to ESPN as a sports authority, and Caesars is honored to have been selected for having the best odds to serve those fans.”