PENN Entertainment reported its first quarter results on Thursday, the first full quarter with ESPN BET as part of its content portfolio. The company inked a 10-year, $1.5 billion deal with The Walt Disney Company to rebrand its betting vertical from Barstool Sports to ESPN, and is eventually looking to yield as much as 20% share of the total addressable domestic online sports betting market in the next four years.

As it pertains to ESPN BET specifically, the interactive segment had revenues of $207.7 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $196 million. Upon reporting the quarterly earnings, PENN Entertainment stock fell by as much as 15% and closed the day down 8.76% overall at $15 per share. The earnings report comes a week after the company announced the addition of Aaron LaBerge as its chief technology officer after spending more than two decades with The Walt Disney Company.

“Our property level performance showed resilience this quarter, with stable trends continuing into April following portfolio-wide severe weather through mid-February,” Jay Snowden, chief executive officer and president of PENN Entertainment, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, ESPN BET continues to drive strong top of funnel demand due to the reach and affinity for the ESPN brand, which led to record online sports betting handle and iCasino gross gaming revenue in the quarter. However, Interactive segment results were negatively impacted primarily by unfavorable hold from major sporting events.

“We look forward to unveiling additional product enhancements and unique media integrations with ESPN ahead of the 2024 football season. Our improved online product offering will help engage, reactivate, and retain our expanding database, while also advancing our strategy to create a highly differentiated experience for sports fans and sports bettors.”

Pat McAfee, who licenses his eponymous afternoon show to ESPN to distribute on linear and digital platforms, was in the midst of another discussion when an ESPN BET advertisement came onto the screen. This led McAfee to state that things are “going great here,” proceeding one of the other show contributors to reply by saying “Not.” McAfee then acknowledged that ESPN BET had been “knocked down” and was encouraging the property to come back, preceded by a remark that the “truth [had] come out.”

“Legit, good luck, pulling for it, because we are on ESPN and obviously we’re a part of ESPN so we would like ESPN stuff to succeed,” McAfee said. “Now granted, ESPN BET, I don’t think ESPN people are running the book. I think it’s somebody with a whole thing. With that being said, let’s go. You got ESPN on – come on.”

McAfee said that it was the fault of show videographer Evan Fox for putting the ESPN BET graphic on the screen since it was something he did not expect. Even though McAfee explained that they never met anyone from the company, presumably referring to PENN Entertainment, he believed that the platform would be fine and concluded the discussion with a round of applause that they would be able to figure it out.

Earlier in the week, The Wall Street Journal reported that NBC was preparing to make a $2.5 billion bid in an effort to reacquire television media rights to the National Basketball Association. Presuming that the league wants to forge ahead with three rights packages – two of which have reportedly been agreed to with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) and Amazon Prime Video – it would leave Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT/TBS) out of the mix. TNT Sports is the home of the acclaimed studio program, Inside the NBA, featuring Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny “The Jet” Smith. With the possibility of Warner Bros. Discovery losing media rights to the league, there has been speculation surrounding the future of the program.

While appearing on Wednesday’s edition of The Really Big Show on ESPN Cleveland, Barkley revealed that he had an opt-out clause in his contract in case the company lost rights to the NBA. Sources recently told Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal that Johnson “would stay at Turner” regardless of what happens with the NBA media rights. Johnson is currently the lead studio host for coverage of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, and he also has been a play-by-play announcer and studio host for the MLB on TBS property.

As the league continues to expand its media portfolio, Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly has the ability to match such an offer, although it would more than double the approximately $1.2 billion it has reported to have been paying within its current NBA media rights deal. Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive officer David Zaslav stated in November 2022 that the company does not need the NBA and would be disciplined in negotiations.

“My bet is that Zaslav will overpay to keep it, goes ballistic to keep it,” a source told Sports Business Journal. “But I think NBC is the front-runner right now or just got in the front. I don’t know if Adam Silver’s doing that to make Zaslav come in with a big number. It’s got to be big. Like, it’s got to blow NBC’s number away.”

Even so, the source does not seem to believe that the package will be equivalent to what the company currently has, potentially with less games during the regular season and playoffs. In fact, the source conjectured that Zaslav would need to “pay out through his nose” in order to reacquire media rights to the league and prevent NBC from possessing the winning bid.

Peter Oosterhuis, who competed on six European Ryder Cup teams and spent 17 years covering the Masters for CBS, has died just one day before turning 76. Oosterhuis had announced in 2015 he was battling early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Oosterhuis debuted on the PGA Tour in 1975 and was a touring pro through 1986. He tried to make a comeback in 1993 on the European Tour but did not make the cut in any tournaments he entered. His lone win on the PGA Tour came in the 1981 Canadian Open.

In 1994 he was hired by Britian’s Sky Sports to cover the PGA Tour. He also worked for the BBC and Golf Channel. In 1997 he joined the CBS golf team on a full-time basis. In 2010 he went back to part-time and worked five or so events per year which included the Masters and PGA Championship.

His final event for CBS was the 2014 PGA Championship.