Ahead of ESPN Bet Launch, ESPN Network Ditches Caesars Sportsbook

ESPN Network to drop Caesars sportsbook ahead of ESPN Bet launch

ESPN Bet will launch this week Tuesday, November 14 in 17 states.

Ahead of the debut of retail and online sports betting, ESPN has switched its odds provider from Caesars Sportsbook to its namesake sportsbook. Disney-owned cable sports programmer ESPN struck a deal with Penn Entertainment in August, allowing the casino operator to add the international sports brand to its sports betting operations.

Penn has parted ways with its former sports betting partner Barstool Sports and agreed to give ESPN $1.5 billion over 10 years to use the sports network's logo.

As sports betting has gone mainstream since a May 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down a federal law limiting single-game betting in Nevada, ESPN has formed a partnership with Caesars Entertainment that allows the sports network to capitalize His caesar sports betting odds his programming.

That changed recently when ESPN dropped Caesars Sportsbook in favor of ESPN Bet (part of the Penn State deal). For this weekend's NFL game listings, the ESPN website displays "ESPN Bet Odds."

Regulators raise concerns

ESPN Bet is launching this week in Massachusetts online and at Plainridge Park Casino in Pennsylvania. During the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's (MGC) review of ESPN Bet's application, the commission expressed concern that the sportsbook was the first to use a third-party brand as its logo.

Commissioners considered whether consumers would be confused about the lines between sports programming producer ESPN and sports betting operator ESPN Bet. Commissioner Jordan Maynard detailed an example in which ESPN personality Pat McAfee discusses weekly college football predictions.

He is ready. He went through each item and began discussing with the jury who he thought would win. Is he an analyst? Is he marketing at [ESPN Bet]? "What is he doing on this show? How do we protect consumers and make sure they don't listen to Pat and make potentially bad bets?"

ESPN Bet officials said several protections will be in place between the two companies, as Penn Entertainment will solely manage the operations of the sportsbook and will not impact ESPN's programming content or journalistic integrity.

Logo Abandoned Mint

The ESPN Bet logo on the ESPN website is completely black, which may have something to do with the controversy surrounding a peer-to-peer social betting startup called BroThrow.

BroThrow is an Arkansas-based company that allows bettors to facilitate bets between friends, family, and other users. BroThrow CEO Brady Sharp told SportsHandle last month that the sportsbook's mint ESPN Bet logo, which debuted in October, looks too much like his own.

"It's one thing if you're a small hardware store in Iowa and your logo is copied by a sportsbook," Sharp said. "It's another thing to get into the sports betting business and see it being used by another sportsbook, especially one as big as ESPN."