Disney CEO Bob Chapek sounds more open than ever to ESPN embracing sports betting, despite Disney’s family-friendly image.

During Wednesday’s earnings call, Chapek said that Disney has found both a broader acceptance of sports betting among the general public and that people see ESPN and Disney as separate brands.

“We have done substantial research in terms of the impact not only to the ESPN brand, but the Disney brand, in terms of consumers’ changing perceptions of the acceptability of gambling,” said Chapek. “And what we’re finding is that there’s a very significant isolation.”

• ESPN looked into licensing its name to another sportsbook for at least $3 billion. The company has held talks with both Caesars and DraftKings.
• The sports network was also rumored to be interested in partnering with or acquiring casino and sportsbook operator Rush Street Interactive.

It’s unclear if Chapek’s statements affect Disney’s reported exploration of spinning off ESPN into a company with more freedom to pursue sports betting ventures and a more singular focus on linear broadcasting than Disney’s other media businesses.

ESPN+ grew its subscriber base by 66% to 17.1 million in Disney’s fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Oct. 3.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the PlayStation 5’s release, and it’s still extremely difficult to get your hands on one. That won’t be changing any time soon.

Sony, like many other tech companies, is suffering from supply chain issues and the semiconductor shortage. In turn, it’s lowered its full-year production forecast for the console to 15 million units by March 2022, down from a previous target of 16 million.

Despite the setbacks, the PS5 has sold 13.4 million units globally since November 2020, making it the fastest-selling console in Sony’s history.

Still, the company’s target of 22.6 million units sold in the next fiscal year may prove unattainable with such limited stock.

• Last month, Nintendo lowered its full-year sales forecast for the Switch by 6%.
• This week, Valve delayed its release of the Steam Deck, a handheld gaming PC, by two months to February 2022.

Sony posted $21.5 billion in revenue in fiscal Q2, a 13% increase year-over-year. The Game & Network Services segment saw sales jump 27% to $5.7 billion.

Earnings season has been tough on athletic apparel brands. From Lululemon to Nike to Adidas, the sector has seen widespread earnings misses, due in large part to global supply chain issues.

Athleisure is one area that’s been a bright spot. In the past 12 months, we’ve seen the following deals:

• Spanx was valued at $1.2 billion after Blackstone bought a majority stake.
• Vuori received a $400 million investment from SoftBank that values the clothing company at $4 billion.
• L Catterton-backed Sweaty Betty sold to Wolverine Worldwide for $410 million.

The athleisure market is anticipated to grow to $549 billion by 2028 — and that’s not accounting for emerging sub-trends within the space.

Athflow — the convergence of athleisure and luxury — was one of the top trends in Pinterest’s 2021 business report.

Tactical sports fashion is on the rise, too. At the end of 2020, On Running’s Cloud X trainer ranked ninth on fashion search engine List — the first time any tactical fitness item had appeared on the index. Since then, each quarterly index has included tactical fitness apparel.

Want to learn more about this half-trillion dollar market? Check out Front Office Sports Insights.

U.S. casinos overall had their best quarter ever in Q3, winning nearly $14 billion, per the American Gaming Association. Ten out of 25 states with commercial casinos also hit revenue records for the quarter.

Sports betting and internet gambling revenue combined increased more than 200% year-over-year for the first nine months of 2021, reaching $5.36 billion.

Nevada, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are the four highest-grossing commercial gambling states.

• Nevada, which has had legal gambling for decades, recorded $54.2 million in sports betting revenue in September.
• Pennsylvania recorded more than $48.1 million in sports betting revenue the same month.
• New Jersey saw $82.4 million in sports betting revenue in October.

New York recently approved two groups — which include DraftKings and FanDuel — for the state’s online sports betting license.

This year’s winnings for the U.S. casino industry are on pace to break the annual record of $43.65 billion set in 2019.