Penn National Gaming, Inc., on Thursday said its Barstool Sportsbook brand positively affected its first quarter results, and the company will continue to expand Barstool’s footprint.
In the press release detailing its Q1 numbers, Penn National president and CEO Jay Snowden (pictured) said the company “remains focused on garnering top-three gaming revenue market share for the Barstool Sportsbook and driving best-in-class profitability.”
Since launching the Barstool brand seven months ago, Penn National has registered more than 400,000 customers, generated more than $660m in handle and $61min gaming revenue, Snowden said.
Penn National has plans for the online Barstool Sportsbook to be live in eight states by football season and in at least 10 states before the end of the year, he added.
“As previously disclosed, on March 11 we successfully launched the Barstool Sportsbook in Illinois, ahead of the 2021 NCAA Basketball Tournament,” Snowden added. “The initial results for the first 30 days of operations exceeded our expectations, with better first-time deposit conversions relative to what we had generated in Pennsylvania or Michigan.”
In the initial month in Illinois, Barstool registered more than 54,700 new customers and generated total handle and gaming revenue of $67.7m and $6.5m, respectively. Snowden said the brand experienced high engagement, with 54% of Illinois customers wagering on Barstool-exclusive bets.
In addition, Snowden said Barstool’s promotion of Penn National’s retail sportsbooks has driven significant awareness and visitation to the company’s land-based properties.
This highlights the unique benefits of our fully integrated media and omnichannel strategy,” Snowden said. “Overall, we have seen very strong results at our properties that have opened Barstool-branded retail sportsbooks, and we plan to open [or] rebrand six more retail sportsbooks by the end of 2021.”
