Barstool Brings Their Mobile App to Colorado

The Barstool Sportsbook mobile app is finally live in Colorado, a state that has established itself as an elite betting jurisdiction within the US legal scene. Barstool’s app faces its share of competition in the Centennial State but hopes for Penn National, who acquired Barstool late last year are that the brand can make inroads into an established mobile market.

Barstool came on scene in Colorado in November with a retail-only facility with Ameristar. Colorado happened to be Barstool’s first launch and set the table for what it is now. The launch of the mobile app takes the company into a whole new territory.

“We are very excited to be opening the first Barstool Sportsbook in the country at Ameristar Black Hawk,” Penn National Gaming President and CEO Jay Snowden said in a media release back in November, when Barstool launched its first retail-only platform at the facility. “This will be the first of many new retail locations for Barstool Sportsbooks at our casinos nationwide. Each will incorporate several features that reflect the spirit of the Barstool Sports brand, resulting in unique sports betting experiences that we expect our customers will thoroughly enjoy.”

Barstool has certainly acted upon those predictions and has become a huge name in the US legal sports betting space.

What Barstool Is Walking Into

Colorado's legal sports betting scene is just over a year old. The platform has been impressive since launch, frequently landing the state win the top-6 of wagering jurisdictions in the country. Since inception, Colorado sportsbooks have reported in excess of $2.3 billion in bets.

As mentioned, Barstool has been a part of the overall legal sports betting scene in Colorado for about 10 months. What was missing was their mobile app in a market that sees up to 90% of their monthly handles coming from their mobile platform.

Colorado has been affected by a country-wide seasonal betting slump but was able to generate a $229.8 million handle in June. Their industry topped out at $326,903,462 in January, giving regulators a glimpse of the potential of the industry in the Centennial State.

Barstool joins 23 other top-tier sportsbooks battling for a market share in Colorado. There is stiff competition in the market, putting pressure on Penn National and Barstool to step up their game in order to make some waves.

The good news is that competition is nothing new to Barstool Sports since they entered the legal sports betting space. With the NFL season and College Football season ready to kick off, there should be plenty of betting activity to share amongst the 24 operators.

Set Up for Success

Barstool's mobile app in Colorado adds to their strong presence in four other elite-level sports betting jurisdictions in the US - Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Barstool has market access into

New Jersey, Virginia, Tennessee and Arizona and hopes to have all up-and-running by September 9, in time for the NFL season.

Barstool entered the legal sports betting industry as a media phenomenon with a huge, loyal fanbase. At one time they had 9.2 million unique listeners each month for its collection of 38 podcasts. Their overall audience was 66 million - a number that has only grown with their presence in the increasingly popular and mainstream legal sports betting scene.

Penn National Is Building a Behemoth

Penn National made a shrewd move to acquire Barstool Sports in a deal that closed earlier this year. They have allowed Barstool to be a standalone brand and will do the same with theScore, which Penn National acquired in another bold move last week. Together Penn National, Barstool Sportsbook and theScore make for a huge family in the US industry.

"We are making the most of what we built wider and deeper,” Snowden said. “We have some nice optionality with theScore acquisition and the cross promotions between Barstool and theScore are limitless. We feel we have two of the premier sports media brands in North America."

Few names bring with it more hype than Barstool Sports. Dave Portnoy, the bombastic founder and current face of the brand has been a master of keeping Barstool in the news. Look for the company to gain a bigger market share in Colorado, thanks to a long-awaited, heavily anticipated launch of Barstool’s mobile app.