ESPN Bet sportsbook is Penn Entertainment’s first brick-and-mortar and it will open a Hollywood Casino at Greektown.
Penn Entertainment has announced that Hollywood Casino Greektown in Detroit is where the its first brick-and-mortar ESPN Bet sportsbook will be.
Jay Snowden is PENN Entertainment’s CEO. He said that they are thrilled to announce that their market-leading sportsbook Hollywood Casino at Greektown will debut as the first ESPN Bet-branded sportsbook in their portfolio. Together with ESPN, they look forward to expanding the ESPN Bet brand with their premium retail sportsbooks and creating unique omni-channel experiences at key Penn properties across the country.
ESPN Bet, the mobile sports betting platform launched in November. The new online sportsbook went live in 17 states. These states include Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The two companies agreed a multi-year, multi-million dollar sports betting partnership for ESPN Bet to replace Penn Entertainment’s current sportsbook in August.
Penn Entertainment reached an agreement with Wynn Interactive Holdings last week. This is to acquire its New York mobile sports wagering licenses. This provides Penn with market access to the jurisdiction. Penn will launch its online sports wagering product, ESPN Bet while waiting for pending regulatory approvals.
Penn will acquire WSI US. This is the entity that holds the mobile sports wagering licenses issues by the New York State Gaming Commission in 2021. It amounts to $25m.
Detroit’s three casinos generated $94.4m in monthly revenue for January, according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board. Table games and slots brought in $93.9m, with the remaining $500,221 coming from retail sports betting.
Compared to January 2023, table games and slot revenue was down by 9.1 per cent. Meanwhile in December 2023, it was down from 15.7 per cent. MGM Grand Detroit Casino accounted for 48 per cent of the market share. On the other hand, MotorCity Casino was at 30 per cent and Hollywood Casino at Greektown 22 per cent.
