ESPN reaches gaming deal with DraftKings as exclusive sportsbook, ending partnership with Penn

ESPN has reached a gaming deal with DraftKings to be its special sportsbook and will end its partnership with Penn on Dec Our betting approach has focused on offering an integrated experience within our products ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro commented Thursday in a declaration Working with DraftKings a leader in the space will allow us to build upon that foundation continue to super-serve passionate sports fans and grow our ESPN direct-to-consumer business The setup and Penn publicized they mutually agreed to an early termination of their -year agreement that began in August When we first publicized our partnership with ESPN both sides made it clear that we expected to compete for a podium position in the space Penn Entertainment CEO and President Jay Snowden disclosed Although we made major progress in improving our product offering and building a cohesive ecosystem with ESPN we have mutually and amicably agreed to wind down our collaboration AP sports https apnews com sports Source