ESPN Bet: WTF?! Do You Really Need to Know?
Hi!
I’d like to thank the executives at Penn Entertainment and ESPN for helping me come up with another example for my upcoming brand management class.
If you are considering an Executive MBA program, might I suggest the Kelley School of Business?
Anyway, my jokes aside, this is a perfect example of co-branding in action.
What is co-branding?
It is when two brands work together to create a new product or service.
Some examples over the years:
Kanye + Adidas
Nike + Apple
NBA + Beats
I could go on. If you don’t like the Kanye one, sub out Beyonce.
The point is that two brands pull together to gain some key leverage in their markets:
Brand image synergy: You get the Penn Entertainment brand of betting, live sports betting, and betting tech combined with the ESPN expertise in live sports, live sports updates, and broadcasting.
Partner synergy: ESPN is sports! Penn Entertainment has the largest and most diverse gaming platform in the United States.
Brand awareness: Penn Entertainment gets the pull of the ESPN brand which has a much higher perception of value than Barstool ever had. For ESPN, they get the opportunity to maintain relevance as the market for sports gambling continues to evolve and the brand goes through a series of internal issues.
Brand protection: There is only upside for Penn and ESPN. They both bring their brand assets to the relationship and leave behind everything else. That’s why it was so easy for Penn to move on from their partnership with Barstool. No one will care that Penn used to run Barstool’s betting arm and now powers ESPN. Just as likely, no one is going to say they aren’t going to watch a game on ESPN because of their partnership with Penn Entertainment.
These are the branding implications, but don’t forget that Penn Entertainment has also agreed to pay ESPN $1.5B over 10 years to enter into this partnership at a time when ESPN is:
Considering selling part of the business to a partner.
Finding revenues declining while costs shoot up.
Want to convert their business model to put more emphasis on D2C/streaming opportunities.
Does this have any impact on tickets?
100%!
There will be more attention on gambling and watching ESPN. This can pull people away from going to games live.
The revenues could help support rights’ payments going forward, giving teams a bit more certainty in the pricing of tickets and other revenue sources.
There will be more competition for fan’s attention which will challenge ticket sales staff with getting their message through online and offline. Because we all only have so much attention to give.
What do y’all think about this?
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