Is Disney venturing into Gambling?
You read the header right. The beloved Disney, famous for Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse might be launching an app for casino and sports betting. The conglomerate “The Walt Disney Company” does not only own adventure parks and make movies for kids. One of their bigger subsidiaries is ESPN.
It was during Disney’s D23 fan meeting held last week that the Disney CEO Bob Chapek confirmed that they are “working very hard” on an online gambling app that most likely would be launched under the ESPN-brand. For those who have been following ESPN’s betting-venture this does not come as a surprise. Since late 2020, ESPN has been working together with Draftkings & William Hill (Currently owned by Caesars).
In markets abroad, TV-channels venturing into online gambling isn’t an old phenomenon where the UK-based communications company Sky has been managing online gambling through SkyBet for over 20 years. Worth mentioning is that even if Mr Chapek mainly talks about online betting rather than casino, the majority, if not all foreign cable networks that have launched gambling sites also have included online casinos and slot machines in their offer.
We at Casivo, would be surprised if that wouldn’t be the case also for Disney & ESPN. Given the reputation and size of the Disney & ESPN-brands we can’t wait to see how they choose to develop a gambling site of their own.
We believe that they will be a nice addition to the number of brands in the US where our gut feeling says they will set the bar and new standards for responsible gambling. Please note however, that no decision from Disney is taken yet. We will of course keep you updated on this topic.
