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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Tom Dart

Disney and ESPN bet big on entering gambling arena – but will they win?

Penn is rebranding its Barstool Sportsbook app and website – which is licensed to operate in 16 states – and handing ESPN $1.5bn over 10 years, with another $500m in stock warrants.
Penn is rebranding its Barstool Sportsbook app and website – which is licensed to operate in 16 states – and handing ESPN $1.5bn over 10 years, with another $500m in stock warrants. Photograph: Tripplaar Kristoffer/Sipa/Kris Tripplaar/Sipa USA

Disney’s dim view of betting changed little in the decades since the 1940 film of Pinocchio, when the puppet visits the cursed Pleasure Island and gambling is one of the vices seducing children who turn into donkeys.

As recently as 2019, the CEO, Bob Iger, declared: “I don’t see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way.”

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