Disney getting into gambling

[firemanx]

One of the things Bob C talked about on the earnings call last week was that they are seriously looking into getting into sports betting. Major change for Disney who has always been against gambling. Apparently Bob sees synergies with ESPN.

WITH THE SEMINOLES GETTING full gambling WDW needs to compete with the seminoles 4 hours south! people come into port everglades & can do beach than hit hardrock same night. I think if DIS sees an oppurtunity to draw in more $ squeeze every dollar from wallets under chapek they will look into it. DIS already runs fanduel Draftkings ads on ESPN. Gambling no longer holds a stigma so i think its just a matter of time

 

[OKW Lover]

WITH THE SEMINOLES GETTING full gambling WDW needs to compete with the seminoles 4 hours south! people come into port everglades & can do beach than hit hardrock same night.

There's a Hard Rock Casino in Tampa that is much closer to WDW.

 

[vincep]

Disney made money to pour into his projects. Now we just see money being poured into top level executive's pockets and budget cuts everywhere. I haven't been since '18 and have reservations for fall of '22 but I'm pretty much on the fence and hoping things get better. Just seeing what happened to Magical Express, the addition of Genie plus and what happened at Trail's End and Cape May Cafe puts a major crimp into my experience. I am happy stocks are going down. May they crash and burn and Chapek and D'Amaro are kicked out. Individuals paid enormous sums of money for showing a singular lack of imagination, creativity and concerns for customers.

 

[firemanx]

any updates on this?

 

[stealdiorite]

In what way does Disney is showing that it is diving in the gambling world? Is it something they're partnering with casino companies or creating games that have hints of gambling?

 

[OKW Lover]

In what way does Disney is showing that it is diving in the gambling world? Is it something they're partnering with casino companies or creating games that have hints of gambling?

It was a comment by the CEO during an analysts meeting a few months ago. Haven't seen much beyond that.

 

[MickeyMouse3!]

Think getting a room/reservation is hard now? Wait until sports betting comes to Disney. I'm still trying to figure out who the idiot is that thought adding a marathon weekend to spring break was a good idea.
Fire Bob Paycheck!!

 

[FCDub]

Think getting a room/reservation is hard now? Wait until sports betting comes to Disney. I'm still trying to figure out who the idiot is that thought adding a marathon weekend to spring break was a good idea.
Fire Bob Paycheck!!

?????????

Why do you think this is coming to the parks or will have anything to do with attendance? It will clearly be some part of ESPN partnering with established sports books.

Some of y’all seriously need to take a break from this Bob Chapek obsession because it’s not healthy.

 

[luv2cheer92]

"The love of money is the root of all evil." It started with the Touchtone movies and has seen a gradual moral decay ever since. How long before there are drug stores..., you know what kind I'm talking about, and brothels on board? Disney as I knew it as a kid is becoming dead to me. I know most will not care, but I'm really sad at how things have changed, not only in America, but our society as a whole.

The world is moving forward, some choose not to move along with it.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Think getting a room/reservation is hard now? Wait until sports betting comes to Disney. I'm still trying to figure out who the idiot is that thought adding a marathon weekend to spring break was a good idea.
Fire Bob Paycheck!!

Umm, you know that race weekend (was half, now 10 miler, not marathon) isn't new right? There's been a race weekend in April for years now. Absolutely nothing to do with him, laughable to think that it was lol

 

[DanielleC]

I don't think Disney is anywhere near getting gambling anytime soon. First, you need to be physically located in one of the states that allow sports betting, one of Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. Even if Disney used ESPN to do something like this, you wouldn't be able to bet in CA or FL because the bettor needs to be located in one of the states I listed.

The Tribal Compact that the State of FL signed with the Seminole Tribe was doomed from the start. The Governor even said it was most likely going to end up in court when it was signed. The State of FL and the Tribe both though the judge would nullify the betting outside tribal lands and leave everything else intact and the suit would only deal with the betting off tribal lands. Instead she nullified the entire Compact. I really think the Tribe kind of knew it was headed to court and didn't really care one way or another if off Tribal land betting was nullified as long as they had exclusive rights to do it on their land. I don't think the Tribe thought the court would nullify the whole damn thing.

Regardless, in order to be able to offer sports betting, you had to be a parimutuel facility, either a horse track, a former dog track or a former Jai Lai Fronton. Disney doesn't own any of these. On top of being licensed by the State of FL, a Parimutuel facility needs to be allowed by the county. Not all counties in FL offer them and those that do aren't issuing new licenses. I know Orange & Osceola Counties don't allow parimutuel facilities. I know there's some regulation that limits the distance between the facilities. Even quarter horse racing can run a parimutuel operation and there's a whole lot of horses in Osceola County. Any horse track would get first dibs on one.

Right now, gambling expansion is prohibited by the state constitution. But let's assume that it's overturned. That's step 1. There's a whole lot of other things that need to happen and the first is establishing a physical location that accepts parimutuel wagering.

Disney just can't turn on sports betting without doing a whole lot of dancing and spending a lot of time. From the looks of it, it will be a few years until gambling is back on the ballot. I think Chapek said what he said to placate the person who asked the question without knowing the hoops Disney needs to jump through. It isn't like turning on a light switch by any means.

 

[old lady]

Unless it has to do with Star Wars, then it is worthless.

 

[GreatLakes]

Think getting a room/reservation is hard now? Wait until sports betting comes to Disney. I'm still trying to figure out who the idiot is that thought adding a marathon weekend to spring break was a good idea.
Fire Bob Paycheck!!

It will be online sports gambling, not slot machines in the Grand Floridian lobby.

There is one and only one marathon at Walt Disney World and unless your spring break is the second weekend of January it isn't during spring break.

There is a rethemed race weekend in April that replaces the Star Wars race weekend but these race weekends don't really impact attendance a ton.