ESPN will launch ESPN Bet in 17 states today, hoping to break through the already crowded sports betting market.

Its partner, Penn Entertainment, will pay ESPN $2 billion in cash and stock over the next 10 years to slap ESPN branding on its online and brick-and-mortar operation previously known as Barstool Sportsbook. Penn ended a similar agreement with Barstool Sports to team up with ESPN and looks to be chasing its losses—the company left its Barstool partnership $923 million in the hole, according to information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

What could make this partnership profitable?

When it comes to market share over the past 12 months, it’s FanDuel (36%), DraftKings (33%) and everyone else. ESPN Bet is acquiring Barstool’s 3% share, believing it can flourish, even though Fox Bet, the sports-betting venture of another TV network, and other sportsbooks closed up shop recently.

ESPN and Penn outlined how they think ESPN Bet can become the Worldwide Leader in Sports Betting through...

• Content integration. It started last night with the Monday Night Countdown pregame show and will likely never, ever end.
• Potential existing clients. ESPN has 20 million fantasy sports users who could be converted into sports bettors (if they’re not already).
• Ad blitz. When sports betting became legal in 2018, it felt like there was no escaping sportsbook commercials. ESPN could deploy that strategy again.

Penn CEO Jay Snowden said he’d like to use Disney’s available retail space as well, which is good news for gamblers hoping to one day place a three-team parlay at the Magic Kingdom.

What about ethics? ESPN is taking measures to avoid shenanigans by forbidding its insiders to bet on the sports they cover or appearing on the network’s daily gambling show. Among the many rules for its 5,000 employees: No betting on draft picks, which could be a direct response to The Athletic insider and FanDuel partner Shams Charania tweeting ultimately incorrect information that shifted betting lines ahead of the NBA draft this year.—DL

Whether you’re running errands or completing your daily commute, we log a lot of time behind the wheel. Your car needs to be your happy place—who wants to drive around all day in anything but?

AT&T In-car Wi-Fi can help keep the good vibes rolling. Whether it’s streaming your fave playlist, switching on cartoons and games for the little ones in the back, or connecting to today’s staff meeting on the go, your car can be your secretary, your DJ, and your back-seat nanny all at once.

Connect multiple devices and drive along to your own beat with In-car WiFi for as low as $10/month.

SCOTUS finally gets an official ethics code. The US Supreme Court officially adopted a written ethics code yesterday for the first time, after several justices faced scandals over large gifts and incomplete financial disclosures. All other federal judges were already bound by an ethics code that doesn’t extend to the nine on the nation’s top court. In introducing their code, the justices stressed that “these rules and principles are not new” but were meant to clear up an incorrect notion that the most powerful interpreters of the law were lawless. However, it doesn’t include a way for the public to lodge complaints or a formal review mechanism for alleged violations.

Exxon aims to become a major lithium producer for EV batteries. In its first big move outside the fossil fuel space in decades, Exxon yesterday revealed plans to become a top lithium supplier by 2030. The company is preparing to establish a production facility in Arkansas that uses a novel extraction method. This could signal a shift in the industry since most lithium—an important component in electric car batteries—currently comes from Australia and South America and gets processed in China. Exxon expects to start production by 2027 and to have enough to power 1 million EVs a year by 2030.

Stellantis offers buyouts to white-collar workers. Facing higher costs from the transition to electric vehicles and its new, tentative contract with the UAW, the Chrysler-maker is looking to slim down expenses by offering voluntary separation packages to 6,400 of its 12,700 nonunion office staff. The company previously offered buyouts to hourly and salaried employees in the US and Canada, but that was before the autoworkers strike, which Stellantis said cost it $795 million.

A record number of people from India were loading up on Red Bull for all-nighters receiving a world-class education on American campuses during the last academic year.

The country sent 35% more students stateside than the prior year, boosting the US international student population almost completely back to its pre-pandemic high (~1.1 million), per a report from the Institute of International Education. According to the report...

• About 269,000 Indian nationals studied in the US in 2022–2023, not far off the roughly 290,000 students from China, which is still the top source of foreign scholars.
• Chinese student enrollment was stagnant year over year after having fallen due to pandemic travel restrictions, the country’s economic woes, and growing political tensions with the US.

What’s driving the influx?

India’s economic boom and growing population expanded the contingent of US student visa holders. Most are enrolled as graduate students, with many pursuing STEM or business degrees. Their studies can really pay off: Just look at the resumes of Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, both of whom left India for grad school in the US.

Aside from the value of cultural diversity…international students are a major source of revenue for US colleges, which is crucial as domestic enrollment declines.—SK

A report released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) confirms what many Americans know to be true: Home affordability is in the gutter.

Due to rising interest rates and low inventory, NAR found that the average income of a homebuyer between July 2022 and June 2023 was $107,000, up from $88,000 the year prior—one of the highest levels since NAR started tracking in 1981. But the housing market continues to churn. The organization found…

• More and more homebuyers are single women. The share of single women buying homes is almost double that of men. They’re also slightly older—a single woman buying her first home is 38 on average, while a single man is 33.
• Buyers are older. The average first-time homebuyer is 35, up from 29 in the 1980s, but it’s older people who are buying up the three-bedrooms after selling their starter homes: NAR found that the median age of a repeat homebuyer last year was 58. In 1981, it was 36.

You may hear more about NAR soon. If a recent jury verdict finding the organization conspired with brokerages to inflate commissions holds up on appeal, commissions could decrease as much as 30%, according to the Wall Street Journal, and it could mean other shake-ups in the real estate industry.—CC

Stat: Australia has something to brag about today besides Tim Tams and venomous spiders: It now boasts the first international installment of the mega-popular NCIS franchise, NCIS: Sydney. While NCIS may not exactly be prestige TV, it does draw eyeballs: More than 300 million people watched some version of the show last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Almost 1,000 episodes have been made, and the original series averaged ~10 million viewers an episode last season, per Nielsen—though at its height during the 2012–2013 TV season, it got more than 21 million.

Quote: “Our lives are pretty normal.”

That’s how Lauren Sánchez, whose fiancé, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has a wooden sculpture of her decorating the prow of his $500 million yacht, described the couple’s day to day in a recent Vogue profile. Sánchez described a routine that involved making each other coffee, driving a teenage daughter to school, family movie nights, and struggling to commit to journaling, but…the former newscaster (who now focuses more on flying helicopters) also detailed her plans to ride a Blue Origin Rocket into space next year.

Read: Strip clubs, lewd photos, and a boozy hotel: the toxic atmosphere at bank regulator FDIC. (Wall Street Journal)

It’s Transgender Awareness Week: Here are tips for being an A1 ally to the trans people in your life, the hilarious essay collection Something That May Shock and Discredit You, and quality podcasts The Knew Guys and The Girl God Experience.

Watch: How the tobacco industry got the world hooked on snacks.

Go beyond pumpkin: 50 delicious pie recipes.

Smile, Fido: Tips from professional photographers to take better pictures of your pet.

What’s your ride worth? Find out with Edmunds’ free online appraisal tool and get an accurate vehicle valuation in a flash—aaand a no-obligation offer from a dealer. Talk about a one-stop shop.*

Stay in the IPO-know: Going public can be the most momentous—and intense—endeavor a biz undergoes. Fidelity SPS joins CFO Brew to discuss the pros and cons of IPOs + equity solutions. Watch the chat.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}