It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU.

Following its acquisition of the Las Vegas Bowl in 2001, ERT began to double as an organizer of sporting events.

The subdivision, which later began to operate under the name ESPN Events, would acquire and establish other bowl games to provide additional post-season opportunities for bowl-eligible teams.

[2] In January 2000, Loren Matthews left ESPN Regional Television for an executive position at sister division ABC Sports.

By February 2000, ERT acquired the production rights to the Arena Football League; this included responsibilities for AFL broadcasts on The Nashville Network, which had ESPN retain duties for the events in lieu of its own unit, World Sports Enterprises.

As such, the division pivoted to focusing solely on organizing events, particularly within college football and basketball.

This strategy has been successful for ESPN, although it has in recent years contributed to an oversaturation of bowl games that have prevented them from all being populated by bowl-eligible teams.