There was good news and bad news in transitioning from a Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN BET for multitudes of s Tuesday afternoon.
The bad news was that while PENN Entertainment and ESPN had made no announcement of precisely when on Tuesday their new t sports betting venture would launch, word leaked widely that it was expected to be at 3 p.m. ET. But at 3 p.m., there was no sign of ESPN BET either by mobile phone app or desktop platform. People grumbled on social media, as they are wont to do.
@ESPNBet how about tell us when an app will be available for
— Paul Naquin (@PaulNaquin14) November 14, 2023
Within a few minutes, those with Apple phones, at least, reported they could the app by doing a deep search for it, but it was not yet live for betting. I, an Android , had no luck of any kind in finding or accessing it, and my old Barstool Sportsbook home page just read the site “is currently undergoing maintenance. Check back soon!”
Then, at 3:40 p.m., the present and ESPN BET promo code link here on the Sports Handle website.
And more easily, when I used my desktop access to my longtime Pennsylvania Barstool Sportsbook , it automatically converted me to the new ESPNBET.com. All of my information was there — my balance, my open futures bets, the same process, all the rest. It was just a matter of doing the now-familiar authentication from a phone text code and checking off some standard updated “ and conditions.”
A quartet of bonus bets 683w35
And then, best of all, came word under the Promo tab that four free $50 bonus bets were available if I placed any bet, for any sum, whether that bet won or lost.
The terminology for the promotion on the desktop site and phone app were a little different, making me wonder if existing customers were eligible. The phone language, which called for no opt-in, was more liberal:
“Available to all ed players with an active and verified who completed registration prior to 9:00:00 AM ET on November 14, 2023.”
I placed a $10 wager to see what would happen. Sure enough, the Rewards section of my immediately showed up with four $50 bonus bets to be used within a week on any wager of my choosing.
So while maybe this wasn’t a 100% perfectly smooth rollout for ESPN BET, by day’s end PENN and ESPN were already making plenty of s happy.
ESPNbet is active. Already got my $200 in bonus bets. #ESPNBet pic.twitter.com/YpZwXziqFE
— Nathan Gilbert (@BigRedGilbert) November 14, 2023
