ESPN BET launched a new campaign for this football season — The Sportsbook for Sports Fans — and is following through with product development on that theme.
Both the ESPN BET app (in partnership with PENN Entertainment), ESPN Fantasy app and ESPN's streaming platforms got key features added late last month, including ESPN BET's new FanCenter and and ESPN DTC's new interactive features.
The path to eating into DraftKings' and FanDuel's market share has always been to harness the tens of millions of users ESPN has across its product suite. It's been a bit of a slow burn getting there, but the initial vision outlined by both parties at launch nearly two years ago seems to be unfolding.
What the App Integrations Look Like
As "The Sportsbook for Sports Fans," it makes sense that ESPN would try to make betting easier for its millions of fantasy football users. And it's now a two-way street — there are more ESPN Fantasy-to-ESPN BET integrations, and vice versa.
In the ESPN Fantasy app, you'll now see more curated parlays based on your players when you click into their player profiles to get news and stats.
In the top left corner of my league homepage on ESPN Fantasy, the "Find a Bet" button will automatically load parlays and other props featuring players from my roster.
On player pages, you'll find more betting info and curated parlays based on that player, and others in that game.
ESPN featured game lines across its products last season, but the seamless linking of the fantasy app to ESPN BET is one big bet the company is making this fall.
In the ESPN BET app, the company is also betting big on FanCenter, a landing page that serves users three main things:
- An easy bet builder based on their fantasy rosters
- Curated bets based on favorite teams and other selected interests
- Bets based on your betting history
My favorite feature is the bet builder, which serves up your fantasy roster and allows you to expand the player to see prop bets related to that player.
So I can take a CeeDee Lamb touchdown quickly, minimize his player card, then scroll down to Chase Brown and bet his receiving prop to start a parlay, or I can just bet them separately.
What About Interactive Features on ESPN DTC?
ESPN launched a standalone DTC streaming service this summer, for the first time allowing users without a cable subscription full access to all their live content. Along with that, they're building more interactive features into their TV apps, including the ability to view live markets and follow their bets alongside live sporting events.
This was always the bet the worldwide leader needed to make to grow its sportsbook, so don't be surprised to see ESPN BET integrations popping up in more places in the coming months and years.
