ESPN BET Is A Lock To Launch By This Date

The anticipation has been building from the moment PENN Entertainment announced its partnership with ESPN and its plans to rebrand Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN BET. Among the many questions rattling around the industry: When will ESPN BET launch?

Last week, PENN executives about the forthcoming mobile sportsbook with regulators in Massachusetts, but they still aren’t revealing a launch date. All we have is a launch month.

The app will debut, in Massachusetts and up to 16 other states in which PENN is licensed, sometime in November.

But just because PENN and ESPN aren’t revealing the launch date doesn’t mean we can’t state ourselves, with near certainty, when the sportsbook is coming.

Barring unexpected technical or regulatory hiccups that disrupt plans, ESPN BET should be live by Monday, Nov. 20 — and most likely, a few days before that.

The most marquee of matchups

It’s no secret that the NFL is the most popular league for sports betting in America. ESPN BET’s goal of launching in November correlates nicely with the heavy wagering that occurs each football weekend.

ESPN — along with fellow Disney network ABC and streaming arm ESPN+ — airs one game during most weeks of the NFL season. While FOX, NBC, CBS, and Prime Video have the broadcast rights to the rest of the slate, Monday Night Football airs on ESPN’s networks.

And you don’t have to stare too long at the November MNF dates to know what the centerpiece of that schedule — and in fact, the entire 2023 NFL schedule — is.

On Monday, Nov. 20, live from Arrowhead Stadium, the Kansas City Chiefs host the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of the Super Bowl contested nine months earlier.

Through five weeks of the regular season, the Eagles are a perfect 5-0 and the Chiefs have rebounded from a Week 1 stumble to move to 4-1, leaving both teams tied for first place in their respective conferences.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the odds-on favorite for MVP, as short as +350 at FanDuel, bet365, and BetMGM. Lurking not far behind him, with the third-shortest odds at +600 at each of those same sportsbooks, is Eagles QB Jalen Hurts.

And of course, Chiefs-Eagles gives us another “Kelce Bowl.” And this time around, there’s a whole segment of the population that couldn’t have distinguished Travis Kelce from Travis Bickle two weeks ago but which is suddenly watching (and maybe even betting on) every Chiefs game.

So while the natural instinct when hearing the words “NFL” and “November” is to think first of the Thanksgiving Day games, the reality is that none of those three games will air on ESPN/ABC. There’s no chance PENN wants to miss the golden opportunity to take bets on a Super Bowl 57 rematch (and possible Super Bowl 58 preview) between Kansas City and Philly.

24/7 ESPN BET promotion awaits

The other Monday night games in November are classic cases of “Gee, that sure looked appealing when the schedule was released.” Nov. 6 offers Chargers-Jets, a significant game had Aaron Rodgers stayed healthy. And the Nov. 13 game is Bills-Broncos, which some perceived heading into September as a likely clash of AFC contenders.

There’s no particular reason for PENN to rush to have the app ready in conjunction with one of those MNF games.

But Chiefs-Eagles? The opportunities for bonus promotions, boosted bets, and creative props are endless.

Logically, however, ESPN BET probably wants to give itself a little runway and a chance for some trial and error rather than launching the day of the massive Monday night showdown. And, hey, no harm in taking wagers on a full Sunday slate of NFL games before it, as well as a loaded Saturday of college football with USC-UCLA, Washington State-Colorado, and Georgia-Tennessee.

Add it all up, and you can bank on ESPN BET to be live no later than Monday, Nov. 20, and probably anticipate a launch heading into that football weekend.

The Worldwide Leader knows how to make a splash. And it doesn’t come much splashier than promoting the heck out of a brand new sports betting app during a live broadcast of a Super Bowl rematch that Taylor Swift just may fly home between her tour dates in Brazil to attend.