Disney to “aggressively pursue” branching out into US sports betting
ESPN parent company insists the stigma around gambling has diminished over the years as it eyes significant revenue gains
Disney has admitted it is looking to expand its global empire into US sports betting.
The global giant boasts a portfolio of businesses including 20th Century Fox, Marvel, Star Wars and – crucially for sports betting – broadcasting network ESPN.
In its Q4 2021 earnings call, Disney global CEO Bob Chapek suggested that it could use its existing sports broadcasting businesses in a potential betting pivot by licensing the ESPN brand.
“We’re also moving toward a greater presence in online sports betting and given our reach and scale, we have the potential to partner with third parties in this space in a very meaningful way,” Chapek explained.
“Suffice to say, we continue to see enormous opportunity in sports and all of this, the rights deals, our innovative programming and the flexibility achieved through our DTC [direct-to-consumer] business, which saw ESPN+ subscribers increase by 66% over the past fiscal year alone,” he added.
Disney has a 10-year rights agreement with the NFL and also recently signed a five-year deal with the league for the Monday night wild card game.
The broadcaster also has seven-year rights deal with the NHL with 75 of the league’s live national games being available exclusively on Disney streaming platforms ESPN+ and Hulu.
ESPN’s Monday Night Football coverage is fronted by NFL legends Peyton and Eli Manning, who recently inked a sports betting media partnership with Caesars.
In August, the Wall Street Journal suggested ESPN brand licensing for sports betting could be up for grabs at a potential cost of $3bn, with the firm reportedly holding talks with both DraftKings and Caesars Entertainment.
Addressing this speculation, Chapek said sports betting represented a “very significant” opportunity for the global behemoth driven by consumer demand.
“It’s driven by the consumer, particularly the younger consumer that will replenish the sports fans over time and their desire to have gambling as part of their sports experience,” Chapek explained.
“It’s not necessarily a lean back, it’s a little bit of a lean forward-type experience that they’re looking for and as we follow the consumer, we necessarily have to seriously consider getting into gambling in bigger way and ESPN is a perfect platform for this.”
Indeed, the Disney CEO suggested any expansion of ESPN into sports betting would not ultimately diminish its brand cachet, with the flagship Disney business primarily targeted at those under the age of 21.
“We have done substantial research in terms of the impact to, not only the ESPN brand, but the Disney brand in terms of consumers’ changing perceptions of the acceptability of gambling,” said Chapek.
“What we’re finding is that there is a very significant installation. Gambling does not have the cache now that it had, say, 10 or 20 years ago,” Chapek added.
“We have some concerns as a company about our ability to get in it without having a brand withdrawal but I can tell you that given all the research that we’ve done recently that is not the case.
“It actually strengthens the brand of ESPN when you have a betting component, and it has no impact on the Disney brand.
“Therefore, to go after that demographic opportunity plus the not insignificant revenue implications, that is something that we’re keenly interested in and are pursuing aggressively,” the Disney CEO concluded.