ESPN Bet Logo Revealed Ahead of November Launch

Article ByDavid Weir

October 19, 2023

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Posted in: US Sports Betting News, Connecticut Gambling News, US Gambling News

ESPN Bet, the highly anticipated sportsbook venture between veteran sports broadcaster ESPN and betting operator Penn Entertainment, has unveiled its new logo ahead of its planned November launch.

The logo features the recognizable ESPN logo (font: italic Stop) in white, with a stripe through it. Then it has BET in mint green underneath. A smaller version of the logo features the E from ESPN inside the B from BET, all in mint green.

The mint color of the logo is a departure from the traditional ESPN colorway, but it is meant to be “welcoming, inclusive, unexpected, and fun,” according to an ESPN press release.

In August, Penn Entertainment and ESPN agreed to a multi-year, multimillion dollar sports betting partnership. Penn secured the exclusive rights to the ESPN Bet trademark for online sports betting in the U.S. for an initial 10-year term. That came after it dropped its Barstool Sportsbook brand, and they sold the media portion of Barstool Sports back to founder Dave Portnoy for just $1.

Upcoming Launch

The launch of ESPN Bet is scheduled for November, with most of its features expected to be available from the start. If the app debuts on Thanksgiving, November 23, it will be live for at least seven weeks of regular season NFL betting action and operational ahead of the playoffs commencing in mid-January.

Penn Entertainment is licensed to operate sports betting in 17 U.S. states, and recently acquired a Kentucky sports betting license in a newly opened market.

The new deal with ESPN may be extended for an additional 10 years upon mutual agreement. As part of the deal, Penn agreed to pay $1.5 billion to ESPN over the initial 10-year term and grant ESPN approximately $500 million of warrants to purchase 31.8 million Penn common shares.

If the venture achieves a certain U.S. online sports betting market share, ESPN could receive bonus warrants to purchase an additional 6.4 million in Penn shares.

Penn execs recently discussed the launch with regulators for Massachusetts sports betting where they affirmed that the ESPN rebrand would not mean changes to the tech stack beyond some upgrades and cosmetic changes.

Twist on ESPN Tradition

ESPN has been exploring a place in the sports betting industry for some time now. In October 2022, rumors were of a potential deal with DraftKings. But ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro refuted the reports.

Now, just a year later, ESPN Bet is just a month or so away from launch. No date has been confirmed yet, but at the recent G2E Las Vegas gambling expo, Penn executives repeated that they were on track for November.

The new ESPN Bet mint green logo colorway keeps things fresh and different for the broadcaster’s first real step into sports betting. However, the inclusion of the same Stop font that the veteran sports broadcaster has used for its iconic logo since 1985 keeps the globally recognizable brand consistent.

“The mint color is a twist on the traditional ESPN colorways, but one we think complements the overall portfolio well,” said Chin Wang, vice president of visual storytelling for ESPN Creative Studio.