As revenue reports roll in from August and September, Penn Entertainment is starting to see the impact of the transition from Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN BET. The company announced the transition and immediate sale of Barstool back to Dave Portnoy but the official rebranding to ESPN BET is still a month away.
Accordingly, Barstool Sportsbook’s market share has started to dip with the lack of a marketing push around the brand.
In Arizona, the surging local brand Desert Diamond surpassed Barstool Sportsbook in September, bringing in $15.3 million of handle compared to Barstool’s $11 million. That puts Desert Diamond in a distant fifth to the top four.
The state’s online sportsbooks collected $354.6 million in handle with most of it coming from FanDuel and DraftKings. The two were nearly dead-even in handle, with DraftKings just edging into the lead with $115.5 million to FanDuel’s $115.1 million. As has been the case in other states though, FanDuel outperformed DraftKings in the revenue department, keeping $12.2 million of those wagers compared to DraftKings’s $9.4 million.
BetMGM accepted $50.5 million wagers in August and, with $5 million in revenue, had a better hold rate than DraftKings as well. Caesars Sportsbook was fourth in handle with $33.6 million and generated $2.3 million in revenue.
When it comes to promotional spending, the big three operators were the only ones spending more than seven figures in the state. Both FanDuel and DraftKings dropped $3.1 million in promotional spending and BetMGM didn’t lag far behind with $2.3 million.
On the flip side, Desert Diamond continued to grow its brand and pick up market share with minimal promotional spending. Even though Penn was winding down Barstool, Barstool nonetheless spent more than Desert Diamond in August with $167K to Desert Diamond’s $104K. All told, operators dropped $9.5 million in promotional credit against $30.2 million in gross gaming revenue for adjusted gaming revenue of $20.8 million.
