ESPN Bet will enter the Kentucky sports betting market via a partnership with Ellis Park Racing & Gaming, according to a document obtained Thursday by Gaming Today.
The document is an Aug. 2 email from Waqas Ahmed, deputy executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, to fellow regulators on the KHRC. It lists service providers that have partnered with the horse racing associations for Churchill Downs, Cumberland Run, Turfway Park, Ellis Park, Keeneland and Red Mile, Sandy’s Racing & Gaming, and Oak Grove.
Penn Sports Interactive and data provider Kambi are listed as partners of Ellis Entertainment, LLC, which operates Ellis Park Racing & Gaming in Henderson County. PSI is part of PENN Entertainment, which announced this week it was selling Barstool Sports back to Dave Portnoy and rebranding Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet this fall.
Specifically, PENN Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden said Wednesday he hopes to have ESPN Bet up and running in November, “certainly before Thanksgiving.”
Will ESPN Bet Have a Retail Sportsbook at Ellis Park?
The Kentucky sports betting bill allows the state’s nine horse racing associations to partner with up to three online service providers. So ESPN Bet will go live in Kentucky via its partnership with Ellis Park.
ESPN Bet will not, however, have a branded retail sportsbook at Ellis Park. Churchill Downs Inc., which owns Ellis Park, told Gaming Today that none of the sports betting locations at any of its Kentucky venues would be branded.
Other Service Provider Partnerships
The document obtained by Gaming Today also lists several other partnerships, some of which were already public knowledge and some of which weren’t.
- DraftKings and Circa are service providers for Cumberland Run in Corbin.
- Kambi is a service provider for Churchill Downs, Ellis Park, Turfway Part, and Oak Grove.
- FanDuel is a service provider for Turfway Park (which is owned by CDI).
- Caesars is a service provider for Keeneland and Red Mile.
On Thursday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced that seven sports betting companies had submitted applications for online licenses in Kentucky. They were:
- Bet365
- BetMGM
- Caesars
- Circa
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- PENN Entertainment (ESPN Bet)
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