An ESPN-branded studio focused on sports betting will be created inside the Linq Hotel-Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in a partnership announced Tuesday between Caesars Entertainment and the sports broadcasting giant.
As a precursor to the new studio’s launch, Caesars’ sports betting data and branding will be integrated across ESPN programming within the coming weeks.
Financial terms and the length of the agreement were not announced.
As part of the deal, sports betting-themed content will be created, along with segments for ESPN’s recently launched sports betting-related show, Daily Wager.
“The sports betting landscape has changed, and fans are coming to us for this kind of information more than ever before,” said Mike Morrison, vice president of business development at ESPN. “We are poised to expand our coverage in a big way.”
The deal will mark the second sports betting studio at a Caesars-owned Las Vegas Strip property. In February, Caesars and sports broadcaster Turner Sports said they would partner in creating gaming-themed content, including the development of a studio branded by Bleacher Report inside the sportsbook at Caesars Palace.
“We view today’s announcement as an opportunity for Caesars to continue positioning its sports betting enterprise for broad distribution,” Jefferies gaming analyst told investors Tuesday. “In this case, the distribution opportunity through ESPN could be considerable over time, as states continue to legalize sports betting nationwide.”
The arrangement appears similar to the one between South Point Casino and the three-year-old Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN), which operates a studio inside the casino’s sportsbook that broadcasts shows discussing betting odds and other sports betting-related content on satellite radio and streaming services. Hall of Fame broadcaster Brent Musburger is one of VSiN’s featured personalities. Downtown Las Vegas casino operator Derek Stevens said he plans to bring a VSiN studio to his new Circa Las Vegas resort, which is under construction and scheduled to open in 2020.
According to Tuesday’s statement, the ESPN studio at the Linq will serve as a Las Vegas hub for odds-related content and will contribute to ESPN’s linear, digital and social shows as well as ESPN.com and the ESPN app. The studio will also play a vital role during major sporting events, including the growing number of marquee events hosted in Las Vegas. The new studio will launch in 2020.
“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,” said Chris Holdren, chief marketing officer at Caesars Entertainment. “Starting immediately, ESPN’s platforms will begin featuring odds information generated by Caesars Entertainment.”
Caesars said in the statement that more than two-thirds of avid sports bettors already watch ESPN, according to Langer Research Associates.
“During the last few years, Caesars has spent a lot of time and money to re-energize the Caesars brand,” Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon said in a note to investors Tuesday. “Given (both) this deal and prior ones, it’s quite clear to us that the Caesars brand will be prominently featured in a significant amount of programming and live events, giving them more connections with sports.”
The announcement comes on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that tossed out the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and opened the U.S. to legalized, regulated sports betting.
Since the ruling, 14 states – including Iowa on Monday – have legalized sports betting, although just eight states, including Nevada, have sportsbooks operating at casinos and racetracks.
Caesars has been active in creating partnerships and marketing agreements in the past year with leagues, teams and media networks.
In January 2019, Caesars announced a deal with the National Football League that established Caesars as the league’s first-ever “official casino partner,” although the agreement doesn’t include sports betting.
Caesars also signed a corporate partnership deal with the Oakland Raiders that takes over when the NFL team moves to Las Vegas in 2020. The company and its casinos also have marketing deals with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
Caesars has also partnered with New York’s Oneida Indian Nation on sports betting.
Beynon told investors the deal between Caesars and ESPN “alluded to additional advertising and sponsorship opportunities” and compared the agreement to last week’s announcement between Fox Sports and the Stars Group.
“(The transaction) speaks to how companies are actively targeting the sports betting opportunity,” Beynon said.
Shares of Caesars closed at $9.09 Tuesday on the Nasdaq, up 21 cents or 2.36 percent.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
