Should Penn Entertainment Consider Firing Jay Snowden?
I briefly mentioned this in the last blog I did, but it’s staggering how much money Penn Entertainment lost while investing in Barstool Sports. Is somebody going to be the fall guy for this disastrous Barstool mistake? Should Penn Entertainment consider firing Jay Snowden? It feels kinda insane that he hasn’t already been fired.
All I’m going to say is, if the CEO lost a company millions upon millions of dollars, why should he get the opportunity to double down? That’s exactly what’s happening here after the new deal with ESPN that will form Bet ESPN launching in the Fall. Penn is spending even more money on this ESPN deal after the Barstool deal failed.
Just go look at Snowden’s page on the Penn website. He’s the one that’s credited for landing the Barstool deal. He’s the one that pushed for this so that Penn could have Barstool’s audience gamble with them. How is he not the fall guy when you buy a company for $500+ million and you give it back to the same guy for $1 less than a year later. That’s literally what happened. Keep in mind, Portnoy still has all of his Penn stock too. Maybe it’s time to question if you have the right CEO in charge.
Given the Barstool disaster, isn’t it fair to question this Bet ESPN deal? Investing in Barstool wasn’t the problem. They were bringing in users. It was the fact that they couldn’t stay out of trouble with the regulators. It feels like Penn just did a 180. Now they want have any problems with regulators but they lost the rabid fan base that will bring them users. It’s cookie-cutter city.
Does he realize that the younger generation doesn’t care about ESPN anymore? It’s the Titanic. Have you seen the layoffs? They’re losing money left and right from cord cutting. All you did was give them a giant life raft. Also, ESPN employees are banned from Bet ESPN, so how are they going to market it?
Regardless, your best case scenario is third place behind DraftKings and FanDuel. That’s best case if ESPN actually pushes them to that point. Are you sure you have the right CEO, Penn?
