In a dramatic turn of events, Disney announced that it would boost the sports gambling content for ESPN.
The anti-gambling stance of Disney stood unequivocally changed when it stated that current financial crisis due to corona virus pandemic has made it help ESPN in boosting its lagging operations.
Earlier Disney Chairman Bob Iger had stated: “I do think that there’s plenty of room [for sports gambling], and ESPN has done some of this already and they may do more to provide information in coverage of sports that would be relevant to and of particular interest to gambling and not be shy about it, basically being fairly overt about it. But getting into the business of gambling, I rather doubt it”, as reported by Calvin Ayre.
However, when ESPN announced that it is going to have to lay 300 employees and cancel 200 openings in addition to pay cuts of its executives, Disney, the parent company of ESPN was forced to reconsider its stance.
Disney called it a result of pandemic and also a key opportunity of growth where it can boost the content for ESPN+ streaming platform and make the company reach for the heights where it once stood.