Five months after roughly halving the size of theScore’s editorial newsroom through a round of layoffs, PENN Entertainment has eliminated the majority of positions in the Toronto-founded company’s esports team.
Numerous social media posts from present and now-former employees since Nov. 20 suggest that the majority of theScore esports staff have lost their jobs. Canadian Gaming Business understands that around three-quarters of the esports team was laid off, leaving around half a dozen esports content-focused employees.
“After 10 amazing years, today is my last day at theScore esports,” wrote theScore esports’ former manager of esports content and scripts. “Our parent company made the decision to eliminate my role along with a vast majority of the staff this morning.”
Canadian Gaming Business reached out to PENN for comment on the extent of the layoffs and the future plans for theScore’s esports arm.
A decade of esports leadership
theScore esports predates the Canadian sports brand’s move into betting. The company launched theScore esports more than a decade ago, in 2015, as it sought to diversify its offering beyond typical sports content and to provide entertaining and accessible programming focused on video gaming. Back in 2020, theScore said it had assembled the largest dedicated esports content team anywhere in the world.
As of the time of writing, theScore esports’ YouTube channel and TikTok channels both have more than has 2.1 million subscribers, and it also has hundreds of thousands of Instagram and X. The brand generates upwards of 60 million views per month across all channels and has produced custom content for several recognized brands including Riot Games, Mortal Kombat, Mastercard, Razer, Geico and others.
The major layoffs on the esports team follow PENN’s large round of job cuts at theScore in June of this year. The parent company eliminated dozens of content, sales and other staff positions at that time, and more than 75 employees’ roles were eliminated in a scaleback that roughly cut the brand’s editorial newsroom in half.
A PENN spokesperson told Canadian Gaming Business at the time that the changes reflected “the ongoing evolution of our digital business.”
“Under the leadership of key recent product and technology hires, we are structured to advance our online strategy and efficiently grow our business,” added the company.
PENN rewrites theScore playbook
Under PENN, which bought theScore from its founding Levy family in late 2021 in a deal worth approximately $2 billion USD, theScore has continued to offer sports and esports coverage but has moved increasingly towards sports betting and online casino products through theScore Bet and theScore Casino.
The flagship theScore media app has approximately four million monthly active users across North America, around one-third of which are spread across Canada, while PENN says the betting platform competes strongly in Ontario’s regulated iGaming market.
While the Canadian side of PENN’s online sports betting operations remained under theScore’s name, PENN pulled the Canadian brand out of the U.S. in July 2022 and attempted to capture a significant share of the U.S. sports betting market with first a Barstool-branded sportsbook and then its ESPN Bet joint venture with Disney. Neither effort was successful, and PENN laid off some workers at ESPN Bet earlier in 2025 before abandoning the joint venture entirely in early November.
PENN is in the process of rebranding ESPN Bet as theScore Bet, bringing it in line with its offering in Ontario’s regulated market and returning the Canadian brand to the American market three-and-a-half years after it withdrew it from the market south of the border.
PENN promises Canadian investment
PENN CEO Jay Snowden said the company is realigning its digital focus to leverage the strength of its Canadian sports betting and online casino operations and its U.S. iCasino business. PENN executives continually sing the praises of theScore Bet’s progress in Ontario, and PENN expects theScore’s cross-Canada sports cachet to make theScore Bet a big player in Alberta whenever that province launches regulated iGaming, slated to be the first half of 2026.
Snowden also said that ending the ESPN partnership will allow PENN to invest more in Canada, and suggested that land-based gaming could potentially be an option.
Where PENN’s continued refocusing on online betting and casino leaves the future of theScore esports is uncertain.
