ESPN Realism
After downplaying prospects of facilitating sports gambling in the late 2010s, Disney’s Bob Iger has had a change of heart. Earlier this week, ESPN announced a partnership with Penn Entertainment that boils down to ESPN getting paid to have its brand be used to promote sports gambling. The deal is wrapped in the reality of what live sports has become.
Set within the video streaming landscape, sports continues to be the most intriguing variable with many moving pieces and a lot of unknown. In early 2022, we talked about ESPN’s staying power in the current landscape. Despite a handful of sports media startups going after sports mindshare, ESPN was able to hold its own. With those startups opting for the exits (via M&A), and pieces of the big cable bundle successfully making the jump to streaming, reports of ESPN’s death have been greatly exaggerated. That’s not to say that ESPN has clear sailing ahead. A new kind of competitor is on the horizon in the form of Big Tech.
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