PENN Entertainment is to rebrand eight of its retail sportsbooks to ESPN BET ‘in sports-centric markets,’ where it hopes to create cross-sell opportunities between casinos and ESPN BET.
This month, conversations will be launched at Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway (KS), L’Auberge Casino & Hotel Baton Rouge (LA) and Plainridge Park Casino (MA). September will see relaunches at Hollywood Casino Columbus (OH), Hollywood Casino Perryville (MD), Hollywood Casino Toledo (OH), L’Auberge Casino Resort Lake Charles (LA) and Margaritaville Resort Casino Bossier City (LA).
The first ESPN BET branded retail sportsbook launched at Hollywood Casino at Greektown in Detroit in April. The news came as Penn reported financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024 with revenues coming in at $1.4bn.
Jay Snowden, Chief Executive Officer and President, said: “Our retail properties delivered solid results this quarter as our best-in-class team of operators continues to execute across our diverse portfolio of market leading assets. In our Interactive segment, top-of-funnel growth, improved risk and trading execution, and refined promotional strategies contributed to better-than-expected revenue and Adjusted EBITDA results.
“Our retail business remained stable as consistent consumer trends, our diverse portfolio, and recent capital investments offset known, new supply in certain markets,” said Mr. Snowden. “We remain focused on database growth and driving engagement through new technology, continued investment in our gaming and non-gaming offerings, and local and national partnerships related to our food and beverage offerings. Cross-sell opportunities from our ESPN BET customers remain a key growth driver for us, as our PENN Play database has grown to approximately 31 million members, including 3.8m in our digital database, which is an increase of more than 80 per cent since the launch of ESPN BET. We are also making solid progress on our four development projects, all of which remain on budget and on schedule.
“In our Interactive segment, we delivered record quarterly gaming revenue driven by enhanced risk and trading processes and deliberate reinvestment strategies. We will maintain our disciplined approach to customer engagement when we launch ESPN BET in New York in late August, where we will benefit from ESPN’s extensive linear and digital reach. We recently began the rollout of our ESPN BET product enhancements and will launch the remaining key upgrades prior to the start of college football and our launch in New York. In parallel, our partners at ESPN are expanding our unique ESPN BET media integrations, including those with ESPN’s leading fantasy football product which boasts over 12 million active users.”
