ShareDisney CEO Bob Chapek has said that ESPN is seeking a betting partner to help launch a sportsbook. Speaking to CNBC’s David Faber, he said: “We at ESPN have the ability to do that. Now we’re going to need a partner to do that, because we’re never going to be a book, that’s never in the cards for the Walt Disney Company. But at the same time, to be able to partner with a well-respected third party can do that for us.”
As a leading sports network in the USA it makes sense that the company would at least consider making moves to take advantage of the rise in popularity of sports betting. Betting on sports has exploded across the nation after the federal law banning it was repealed with many giants of the world’s gambling industry moving quickly to cash in.
Recently, activist investor Daniel Loeb’s Third Point took a new stake in Disney raising its holding to 0.4% of the company, worth around $1bn. Immediately, he began pushing for the firm to spin off and create more profitable business initiatives that don’t fit in with Disney’s image.
Loeb said: “ESPN would have greater flexibility to pursue business initiatives that may be more difficult as part of Disney, such as sports betting. We believe that most arrangements between the two companies can be replicated contractually, in the way eBay spun PayPal while continuing to utilize the product to process payments.”
Later, however, Loeb appeared to back off slightly, citing a better understanding of ESPN’s standalone value following Bob Chapek’s speech at the annual D23 conference in Anaheim.
The Financial Times reported: “...the company revealed its streaming and theatrical slate to thousands of fans. Disney showed off trailers of two highly anticipated films coming this autumn, the Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water. It also previewed a run of original series on Disney Plus, including the Star Wars prequel Andor and the Marvel series Secret Invasion.
Chapek said the slate represented the end of a coronavirus-induced production bottleneck. “This is our new steady state [of production],” he said, saying that both the pace of production and the size of its content budget — about $30bn — would remain level.”
This was enough to convince Loeb that ESPN is likely to do fine as a standalone entity in the short to medium term.
