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00:00The beginning of college and pro football season, usually it's launch time for a lot
00:08of the different sports betting operators, but not so much in New York for ESPN bet.
00:13One of the sports betting operators that we're keeping a close eye on here in 2024.
00:17What do you make of the process here and what's going on?
00:21Yeah, when Penn Entertainment CEO Chase Snowden addressed investors a few weeks ago, he was
00:29really gung ho about launching ESPN bet in New York, which is obviously the biggest sports
00:35betting state.
00:36It's one of the highest taxed sports betting states as well.
00:38So it's really key for the operators there.
00:41The ones that have been there for a while, DraftKings and FanDuel kind of have a foothold
00:44and ESPN bet hadn't launched when the state launched sports betting in 2022.
00:50Now they acquired a license from WinBet last December and that was essentially moving forward
00:56their plans to launch.
00:58Snowden was really gung ho about launching before the start of football season.
01:01He said we would be in New York by college football week one, which was in back in August
01:0725th, I believe is when the first college games were played.
01:10Now fast forward, we're going into week two of the NFL season and ESPN bet still is not
01:16in New York.
01:17So there's a delay there.
01:19You're wondering why.
01:20I caught up with the New York State Gaming Commission.
01:23They said that they haven't reviewed Penn's license yet.
01:27They have to review this transfer over from WinBet before they can even launch.
01:31Now the earliest they said that could happen is September 23rd, which is about week four
01:37of the NFL season.
01:39So once that happens, then ESPN bet theoretically would be able to launch.
01:43So it might not even happen until week four, week five, week six.
01:47We don't really know.
01:48ESPN bet says it's still working on things, but this kind of throws a wrench in sort of
01:54the plans that they had talked about in their last earnings call.
01:57They had accounted for New York, a full football season of NFL betting in New York in their
02:02guidance in the revenue that they were telling investors they would make this year.
02:06So it's going to be interesting to see how that could possibly impact that as well.
02:10You know, like you alluded to, Craig, launching at the start of football season is really
02:14key because that's what everyone's flocking to the new apps.
02:16It's kind of when you see people's behavior or patterns start to develop.
02:20So last year ESPN bet launched, I think in around like week 11, pretty late in NFL season
02:26at 17 states at once.
02:29But this time they're only going to be launching in one state.
02:32So there's not going to be as much fanfare, not as much attention around it.
02:35It'd be really interesting to see what happens eventually in New York here.
02:39Penn stock has taken a hit because of this.
02:41I'm told by investors, they think people are kind of seeing, you know, they promised something
02:45they didn't deliver on it.
02:46So unfortunately, this is a story for Penn, which has kind of continued with them saying
02:51we're going to do this.
02:52And then it kind of, you know, delays happen.
02:54That's kind of how things go in the sports betting world.
02:56There's a lot of hoops you need to jump through, a lot of, you know, approvals you need to
03:01get from different parties.
03:02It's not just as easy as buying the license.
03:05I'm really interested to see and what it looks like when they launch in New York eventually
03:09with all the promos, things of that nature.
03:11They've said they're going to rely more on the ESPN branding, more on the app updates
03:16and integrations that they've talked about as well, that we still are wondering when
03:19that's going to come.
03:20So when they launch in New York, maybe you'll see less promos, maybe you'll see more advertisements.
03:25But for now, we're just kind of waiting to see when that's going to happen.
03:28And the earliest it can happen is September 24th.
03:31So we're just going to have to wait till then.