Which States Was ESPN Bet Legal In?

At its peak, ESPN Bet offered sports betting to customers in 19 states:

PENN Entertainment secured multi-year agreements granting ESPN Bet market access in states where PENN operates land-based casinos. The deal made PENN Entertainment the exclusive sports betting and online gambling partner of ESPN for 5 years and opened the door to expansion in numerous states.

ESPN Bet Bonus Offer

ESPN Bet welcomed new customers with a first bet reset worth up to $1,000. Claiming the offer was simple:

• Sign up for an ESPN Bet account
• Deposit funds
• Place a cash wager on any sport

If your first bet lost, you received a 100% refund worth up to $1,000 in bonus funds. ESPN Bet issued the refund as five bonus bets, each equal to 20% of the losing wager. For example, if you place a $100 wager and lose, ESPN Bet gave you five bonus bets worth $20 each.

ESPN bonus bets had three significant limitations:

• They were non-withdrawable (could only be used to place wagers at ESPN Bet)
• Successful wagers placed with bonus bets only returned the net winnings as withdrawable cash
• Unused bonus bets expired seven days after receipt

ESPN Bet Promotions

ESPN Bet promotions aimed to generate engagement between customers and the ESPN sports betting brand, particularly by providing opportunities to bet with or against personalities. Such offers fit well into ESPN’s other engagement strategies, including pregame shows and in-game feeds that allowed bettors to watch games live.

The ESPN Bet team was never short on creativity, and that mindset also extended to promotions. Other, more traditional promotional types included Bet & Get, Parlay Insurance, and small bonus cash offers.

ESPN Bet tended to offer custom promotions for customers based on their preferences, so bettors had to log in to see the complete list of offers available to them. With that said, ESPN Bet offered a ton of daily promos, ranging from getting bonus bets for placing parlays to lost bet insurance.

ESPN Bet Loyalty Program

ESPN Bet automatically enrolled all new customers into PENN Entertainment’s official loyalty program.

PENN Play is a multi-tier rewards system that allows bettors to earn comps, luxury gifts, travel perks, hotel stays at PENN Entertainment retail facilities, cash, and much more.

Slow earn rates and limited perks for online bettors reduced PENN Play’s value for ESPN Bet users who didn’t visit PENN properties often. However, bettors who lived near PENN properties could earn monthly PENN Cash and PENN Play Credit bonuses with minimal effort and take advantage of the many in-person benefits the program offers.

Read more about PENN Play here:

• ESPN Bet Rewards Program: PENN Play

ESPN Bet Deposit Options

ESPN Bet sportsbook accepted a standard assortment of betting deposit methods:

Withdrawing From ESPN Bet

ESPN Bet processed most withdrawals via the following methods:

• Online Banking: Withdraw directly into your bank account. Average turnaround time was listed as 3-5 business days, but was often much faster.
• ACH / eCheck via VIP Preferred: Withdraw to a checking account linked to VIP Preferred. Transactions typically took up to 3-5 business days.
• PayPal: Bettors had to first use PayPal for a deposit to withdraw. Funds were usually available quickly (1-2 business days).
• ESPN Bet Play+ Card: Customers who already had Play+ cards could instantly withdraw funds to the card. Users could then either use those funds for purchases, to withdraw cash at ATMs, or transfer them back to their originating source.
• Paper Check: When other withdrawal methods weren’t an option, paper checks were a decent fallback. Checks could take up to 14 days to arrive, and there was a minimum withdrawal requirement of $250.
• Cash at the casino cage: Bettors could deposit and withdraw funds from participating casino locations. Pickup requests could take a day or two to be approved, but once they were, the funds would be available almost immediately.

The minimum withdrawal amount for all listed methods besides paper checks was $10.

ESPN Bet Customer Service

Bettors could visit the ESPN Bet Help Center for answers to common questions or contact a live support rep through the following methods:

• Email: Fill out a short form, including details related to the issue, and submit it. Bettors could expect a response within 24 hours.
• Live chat: Chat with a live agent. This option was available 24/7, 365 days a year.
• Request a callback: Post a message with your phone number to have an ESPN Bet rep call you back.

BettingUSA experienced significant issues contacting customer support on the day after ESPN Bet launched, but it would be premature to make any lasting judgments at that early stage. The support team was likely dealing with an extraordinarily high volume of phone calls, live chat requests, and e-mails.

Still, one would expect a sportsbook bearing the ESPN banner and powered by PENN National to anticipate high support request volume after launching a new product in 17 states simultaneously.

A help ticket submitted through a request form at ESPNBet.com over the lunch hour received no answer that same business day.

Likewise, a call to the support number went straight to an automatic voice message that neither identified itself as ESPN Bet nor shared which method a representative would use to respond. It simply stated:  

“No support agents are currently available to take your call. Please leave your name, e-mail, and phone number, and we will get back to you shortly.”

Ultimately, BettingUSA reached a representative via live chat after waiting in the queue for just over half an hour. The help rep was knowledgeable, courteous, and quickly resolved the issue.

ESPN Bet App Review

The ESPN Bet app originally ran on software developed by Kambi, the former supplier to DraftKings and a reputable provider in its own right. However, it later migrated to an in-house technology stack. The changeover was planned ever since PENN Entertainment acquired Score Media and Gaming in 2021. The new ESPN sports betting platform was provided by Score Media’s flagship product, theScore Bet.

PENN Entertainment promised a bevy of notable improvements, including a more streamlined user experience, an increased number of wagering markets and betting types, faster load times, improved cashouts, and deeper integration with theScore.

The reinvigorated ESPN Bet sportsbook app lived up to its high expectations, mostly.

For a standard professional sports game, bettors could expect more than 50 prop betting options, with each betting category neatly divided into digestible chunks.

More importantly, bettors received better odds. The improved ESPN Bet app offered better lines, on average, than BetRivers, a sportsbook that still uses Kambi technology. ESPN Bet’s moneyline vigorish on professional sporting events was just ~3-4%, although it was higher for smaller markets (5-6%).

Prop pricing was also respectable, clocking in at around 5-6%. However, similar or better pricing could be found at several other online sportsbooks.

ESPN Bet also offered more odds boosts than ever before, and the exact amount of the boost was clearly displayed on the app. In addition, ESPN Sportsbook Exclusive bets remained a staple of the app and occasionally offered significant value.

The Bet Slip was also improved. When bettors selected a wager it was instantaneously recorded on the Bet Slip, and players could either use predetermined bet sizes or their own custom amount to place wagers. Should players want to convert their straight bet into a Parlay+ (the ESPN Bet version of a Same Game Parlay), they could simply click on the game from the Bet Slip and add wagers.

One really notable feature was that ESPN Bet always used the same lines for Parlay+ bets that it did for straights. Other books often hide Same Game Parlay odds from a bettor’s view.

Alternatively, bettors looking to add parlay legs from other games could easily hide the Bet Slip until they found another bet they’d like to add. When users were ready to place a wager, it was usually accepted at breakneck speed. The only exception was when there was line movement, which did happen quite frequently.

Other unique features included a slider that allowed bettors to quickly find alternative spreads and totals as opposed to manually searching through long lists.

A standard layout and quick signup process made registering and getting started easy. Users could use two menus to navigate through the app to view promos, manage account settings, view open bets, set spending limits, get help, and visit specific sports.

Bettors could download the ESPN sports betting app for iOS and Android devices by pointing their mobile browsers to espnbet.com and tapping the big “download” button.

ESPN Bet Mobile Betting App Screenshots

ESPN Bet In-Play Betting

ESPN Bet offered a clean and functional but unexceptional in-play betting interface. The ESPN Bet app covered mainstream and niche sports in the US and abroad with standard full-time outcomes, in-play props, and play-by-play flash betting markets.

ESPN Bet’s event coverage was adequate but still fell well short of its biggest competitors, especially during non-peak hours. Customers suffered no lack of in-play betting options for professional American sports, but the pickings were noticeably slimmer for international sports during non-peak hours.

ESPN Bet in-play betting vigorish was comparable to the market leaders. For example, a comparison of in-play lines on NCAA games between ESPN Bet and DraftKings revealed both charging commissions in the range of 5-6%. When comparing their vigorish for major US professional leagues, DraftKings’ in-play betting lines had a slight advantage, sitting at around 5%, while ESPN Bet’s lines tended to stick to around 6%.

The in-play software was a mixed bag. At times, the lines updated quickly, with minimal lockout periods. Other times, bettors were subjected to the spinning wheel of death for 10-15 seconds a clip. Occasionally, loading times would soar to over a minute, especially when there was a lot of in-play action.

Overall, the in-play software was improved, but ESPN Bet still had some obvious kinks to iron out.

One area where ESPN Bet could have stood out above its competitors was the unique content it could put out alongside in-play betting events. While other sportsbooks may offer standard pregame shows, only ESPN Bet could provide its own unique and in-depth sports commentary.

ESPN Sports Betting Markets

When PENN Entertainment offered online sports betting under the Barstool Sportsbook brand, it boasted extensive market coverage. For example, it offered the rarely seen “The Hanson,” which is a bet that allows bettors to predict the collective point total for all Sunday NFL games.

ESPN Bet also covered niche sports like Lacrosse, beach volleyball, and cycling.

• ESPN Bet Odds Boosts: Users could visit the “Boosts” tab anytime for odds-boosted selections with higher-than-usual payouts.
• Parlay+: The ESPN Bet same game parlay variation was called Parlay+ and pushed the same game parlay concept to the extreme. Not only could bettors combine wagers from a single Parlay+ eligible game, but they could combine bets across multiple Parlay+ games plus single bets from non-Parlay+ games.

However, ESPN Bet’s heavy emphasis on action bets came with a price. The vig on multi-leg parlays and crazy Parlay+ wagers could be extraordinarily high.

Other standard types of wagers on offer included typical point spreads, moneylines, totals plus many alternative lines, half-time results, player totals, in-play betting, and many props.

ESPN was still a bit light on market depth before its permanent rebranding to theScore. When it operated under the Barstool Brand, PENN National offered more derivative wagers than most other books. For example, it was not uncommon to find upwards of 100+ alt totals for an NBA game, and at least 75+ alt spreads for NFL and NBA games under the Barstool brand, using the same technology platform as ESPN Bet.

The list of sports covered ran the whole gamut of college and pro sports:

More About ESPN Bet

PENN Entertainment and ESPN, Inc. introduced ESPN Bet to the world in July 2023. In a joint press release, the two entertainment behemoths announced a partnership to operate retail sportsbooks and offer online sports betting nationwide under the ESPN Bet brand.

PENN Entertainment brought market access and betting experience to the table as the parent company of brick-and-mortar casinos across the nation. Market access is a critical component of the deal because most states with legal sports betting only issue licenses to online sportsbook operators partnered with local land-based casinos.

Meanwhile, ESPN provided name recognition and endless advertising opportunities in front of a massive sports-watching audience. It seemed like a perfect match for market dominance, but the FOX Bet example (and now ESPN Bet itself) demonstrated that US bettors are too sophisticated to be wooed by mediocre sportsbooks with name-brand logos and big advertising budgets.

FOX Bet was the product of a similarly powerful partnership consisting of FOX Sports and FanDuel’s parent company, Flutter Entertainment. Despite Flutter’s success with FanDuel and massive marketing opportunities, FOX Bet closed just four years after its launch after barely making a dent in the states where it was active.

PENN Entertainment had a similar experience with Barstool Sportsbook. It paid $163 million for a 36% stake in Dave Portnoy’s Barstool Sports empire and launched Barstool Sportsbook. That deal also seemed like an excellent match, but PENN sold Barstool Sports back to Portnoy for just $1 three years later.

Similarly, the ESPN and PENN Entertainment partnership failed to yield significant results. Just two years into the deal, ESPN and PENN Entertainment mutually agreed to terminate their partnership early.

ESPN Bet FAQ

Expert Opinion: Was ESPN Bet Legit?

ESPN Bet was a safe, legal, and legitimate online sportsbook. As the official online sportsbook of ESPN and PENN Entertainment, ESPN Bet was a known quantity operated by a deeply experienced company. PENN Entertainment came to the partnership with sports betting licenses in many states and years of experience as a sportsbook operator.

Furthermore, its revamped ESPN Bet app was built entirely from proprietary tech. That means ESPN Bet could introduce features not found elsewhere, try new things, and respond quickly to consumer demand. However, ESPN Bet failed to differentiate itself by any worthwhile metric, seemingly content to ride the ESPN brand name and hope for the best. After two years of struggling to achieve market share, ESPN and PENN Entertainment ended their partnership early and terminated the ESPN Bet brand.