Both Caesars Entertainment and DraftKings have inked lucrative deals with the US sports media giant, ESPN.
Under the terms of the deals:
- ESPN will link to odds and daily fantasy data provided by DraftKings
- ESPN will post and link to odds from Caesars Entertainment’s sports betting partner, William Hill.
According to the vice president of business development and innovation at ESPN, Mike Morrison, the new agreements with Caesars and DraftKings collectively represent the next significant milestone for the company to diversify and deepen its commitment in the US sports betting space.
“We began growing the experience through content, followed by odds utilizing William Hill’s sports betting data and a new state-of-the-art studio facility in Las Vegas through our deal with Caesars, and now with the addition of DraftKings, we are bringing together the sports media leader with two of the top brands and best products in the segment,” he said.
Tracking the ESPN/Caesars Entertainment Deal
Since ESPN first agreed on a sports betting deal with Caesars Entertainment last year, the two icons have progressed swiftly in their collaboration.
In the initial deal, the two agreed that Caesars would become ESPN’s official odds data supplier across TV and digital platforms.
In August 2020, ESPN announced that it would be opening a studio at The Ling Hotel and Experience in Las Vegas.
The CE of Caesars, Tom Reeg, said that his company’s relationship with ESPN continues to deepen with the ability to directly link to sportsbooks data from its partner, William Hill, from ESPN’s digital platforms.
“This new initiative closely followed the grand opening of the new ESPN Studio with Caesars at the center of the world-famous Las Vegas Strip,” he added.
DraftKings Fantasy Sports Segments on Premier ESPN Shows
Moving on to the deal with DraftKings, ESPN will see the sportsbooks giant integrated onto some of its premier studio shows through daily fantasy sports segments.
DraftKings said that that it was “very excited” to expand its relationship with ESPN, saying that the media group’s reach is “unparalleled”.
The sportsbooks linked provided on the ESPN shows will be geotargeted so that they will only be available in those states where sports betting is allowed by law.
