The sports betting industry in the United States just continues to see some more growth, and September was a record-setting month for the country. The overall numbers in November should be large as well, especially since there was a new mobile app that launched.
ESPN BET officially went live on November 14th, and it was able to accept bets in more than a dozen states. This new mobile app is a product of ESPN and PENN Entertainment, and it was expected to become extremely popular.
It’s going to take some time before ESPN BET is able to challenge the biggest names in the industry, but it’s definitely on the right track. JMP Securities has provided some data and stats to show just how popular ESPN BET has already become, and it should only continue to grow from there.
Huge Number of Downloads
It was initially announced that the ESPN BET would go live at 3:00 PM ET on November 14th, and sports bettors were awaiting the launch. There was a slight delay by nearly an hour, but the downloads started to come at a pretty record clip.
According to JMP Securities, there were over 1.1 million downloads of the mobile app by November 20th, and that set a record for the six-day period. That record used to belong to FanDuel Sportsbook, but it was downloaded just 468,000 times during a six-day stretch.
This is the first major sports betting app to be launched in quite some time, and it helped that it happened in more than a dozen states at once. It does show that bettors are willing to add another sports betting app to the mix, and it could ultimately replace an older option for some.
Not only was the ESPN BET app popular on Android devices but it was sitting at the top of the App Store in terms of popularity and downloads. ESPN and PENN wanted to get the app out during the 2023 NFL season, and they will still get nearly half of the regular season to accept some wagers.
There will be a number of states that will provide handle and revenue reports for the month of September, and that will be the first time to see how well ESPN BET is competing with the other mobile apps.
Ready to Launch in Kentucky
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission held a meeting earlier this week and it approved an application from ESPN and PENN Entertainment. That is going to allow the ESPN BET app to launch in this state in the future, and that should make bettors in this state happy.
PENN had already rebranded the Barstool Sportsbook app in the state, but that was only done on a temporary basis. Now that there was unanimous approval, both companies don’t have to worry about losing out on another market.
The Horse Racing Commission also approved several new sports betting markets in the state, and that will add to a catalog that hasn’t always been full with many options.
