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SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - Our top story in the sports betting universe today
00:06 is that ESPN Bet, you know, now of course
00:08 being run by Penn Entertainment is coming to New York,
00:12 but that's only part of the story
00:14 because they're doing it through another company.
00:16 So thanks for coming on and tell us exactly
00:19 how this is gonna work.
00:21 - Yeah, hey, thanks Craig.
00:22 Always love to be here,
00:23 especially with breaking news like this.
00:26 Yeah, Penn is buying the license of WinBet, WinResorts.
00:31 Now this has been rumored for a little while.
00:34 As you know, WinBet just pulled out of Massachusetts
00:37 and later on the late part of last year,
00:40 they started to really wind down
00:42 where they were going to be operating.
00:45 Look, WinBet has, Win has always looked at WinBet
00:48 as just a service that it was providing for its customers.
00:51 It said as much when it got this New York license
00:53 a couple of years ago, which is kind of shocking
00:56 because they paid $25 million to have this license.
00:59 And they were just looking at it as, you know,
01:01 a commodity for their customers.
01:04 And so now they said that they were going to keep
01:08 New York and Michigan and, you know,
01:10 see maybe what was out there.
01:12 And we reported from analyst reports in December
01:16 that this was starting to really get some traction,
01:19 that Penn was really looking to buy into the market.
01:21 And so now we have Penn buying Wins license at face value,
01:25 $25 million.
01:26 Not sure why that's the price, if I'm being honest,
01:31 it doesn't account for anything Win has done in the state.
01:35 Just simply covers that license fee.
01:38 Great deal for Penn, obviously.
01:39 And look, you know, when Penn originally
01:43 did not get a license, if you remember,
01:45 they partnered with Fanatics back before Fanatics
01:48 even had a gambling brand.
01:50 And now both are going to be in the state,
01:53 but Jace Snowden, the Penn CEO said back then,
01:56 look, I don't think anybody's going to make money
01:58 in New York with this 51% tax rate.
02:00 But then also said something to the tune of, you know,
02:04 would you rather be in it?
02:05 Yeah, I guess you would rather be in it.
02:07 Now, at that point, they had a little bit of insight
02:10 into how Barstool was doing.
02:12 And as we now know, the Barstool business was,
02:17 it was just completely underwhelming for Penn
02:20 in the way that, you know, Barstool was unable
02:22 to translate those stoolies into actual bettors.
02:26 Now they're trying something with a much larger footprint
02:29 with ESPN, and they're saying, look,
02:33 it's better to be in, right?
02:36 They can't go in and expect to make a ton of money,
02:39 especially after your CEO said nobody will,
02:41 but it's better to be in.
02:43 It gives you, look, better return
02:45 on the national advertising.
02:47 It just adds something to the portfolio
02:50 when you can say, yeah, we're live in New York.
02:53 So there's no operators that are happy to be in New York
02:57 and paying the 51%, not being able to deduct
02:59 their promotions and, you know,
03:01 everything you might see in other states.
03:03 But Penn, it seemed like Penn really, really wanted
03:07 to get in, and now they're in,
03:08 and they say they'll be live this year.
03:11 (upbeat music)
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