Marketing firm Hot Paper Lantern’s Chief Executive Ed Moed argues that ESPN failed to leverage its brand to differentiate ESPN Bet from other sportsbooks, leaving no other likely outcome than the annulment of its ten-year US$150 million-per-year deal with Penn Entertainment.
What does the failure of the ESPN Penn partnership tell us about the limitations of brand recognition in this market?
[According to Moed] “I think the biggest challenge is that the business of sports betting operators is one of the most difficult models I have come across in the last decade. Creating meaningful market share, where new users are either new bettors, or more likely, coming from the two big players, DraftKings or FanDuel, is a challenging task.”
