PENN Entertainment is an operator that knows the value of cross-sell, and that’s reflected in the journey it has taken theScore on in Canada.
As a historic U.S.-focused retail casino specialist in charge of a legacy Canadian sports media brand, PENN has continued to lean theScore into an expanded gaming offering since acquiring the company in 2021. The sports core is still there, from a trimmed-back editorial newsroom to a competitive and localized sportsbook platform to partnerships with the likes of the Toronto Blue Jays.
But online casino is an increasing focus. Although iCasino remains a big part of theScore Bet app, by launching a theScore Casino standalone app in Ontario in April, PENN turned its hand for the first time to leveraging the recognizable Canadian sports name for a pure casino purpose.
Sports by name, casino by nature
theScore Casino is partly a reflection of the Ontario market, where online casino consistently comprises around 85% of total wagering and more than 75% of operators’ earnings on a monthly basis. Other major operators have looked to capitalize recently with their own launches, such as historic sports and fantasy gaming giant DraftKings bringing Golden Nugget Online Casino to the province last month.
PENN Interactive’s Vice President of Operations Jason Birney told Canadian Gaming Business that theScore Casino launch was mostly a reflection of both PENN and Ontario’s history and expertise in casino gaming.
“More so than the overall Ontario market, it’s our experience in being able to offer a casino-first product that really drove us towards the offering,” Birney said in an interview. “theScore is a sports-first brand and penetrates well within the Ontario and wider Canadian market. PENN is traditionally a brick-and-mortar casino company and though we no longer have any [land-based] products in Canada, PENN’s experience with traditional casino and the strength of Ontario’s brick-and-mortar gaming meant we knew that market would benefit from a standalone casino product.”
“So much of what we’ve developed on the casino side is sports-leading.”
PENN VP Jason Birney
PENN previously had a footprint on Ontario’s land-based casino ground, including running Casino Rama until late last decade. While it no longer has skin in that game, it continues to operate a variety of physical casinos south of the border, including the U.S.-facing Hollywood Casino brand it acquired more than 20 years ago.
Over the last year or so, PENN has taken Hollywood Casino online, launching it in four major U.S. iCasino states. Birney noted that until December 2024, PENN had zero standalone iCasino products; by summer 2025, it had one in most available iCasino markets in North America.
Prioritizing cross-vertical penetration
While PENN Interactive’s main recent focus has been on establishing both Hollywood Casino and its ESPN Bet venture in the U.S., drawing upon the two brands’ respective cachets and existing customer bases, theScore-only Ontario remains PENN Interactive’s top-performing market.
Ultimately, having a casino vertical within theScore Bet app just didn’t cut it anymore. Now, theScore Casino’s own platform, using the same tech as Hollywood Casino, offers a variety of online slots, table games and live dealer content, including a wide range of third-party content plus original titles, bespoke tables and exclusives from the in-house PENN Game Studios.
Birney explained that while most of the casino app’s offerings still exist on the sportsbook-focused theScore Bet, a big difference between the two apps is the audience catered to.
“The casino standalone product provides that offering to a group that may not be sports-first, that may be more experienced and familiar with traditional slot machines,” Birney explained. “Up to now, we’ve tried to distribute that casino experience between all of our products. But casino-first patrons are looking for things like slot tournaments, leaderboards, specific free-play offerings and specific game types. Those are all things we’re developing that will separate the casino experience from what you see on sports.”
Image: PENN Entertainment
By design, a certain amount of crossover will remain. Not only is casino still an option on the sports-first theScore Bet, PENN falls back on theScore’s sports history in some of its Casino app offerings. Two of its most prominent blackjack titles have Blue Jays and PGA Tour branding, for example.
“So much of what we’ve developed on the casino side is sports-leading,” acknowledged Birney. “In our own internal game studio, we focused on building out the blackjack product first because we know that tends to be what the sports consumer likes. And we have theScore-branded blackjack games and video poker, all of these sports-leading brands offering cross-sell opportunities within casino as part of the story. That’s what we aim for.”
The footprint deepens
PENN believes that having two separate apps under the legacy theScore brand, with significant crossover between verticals, will only reinforce its position in Ontario, where executives estimated late last year that theScore had double-digit market share in online sports betting and high single-digit in online casino despite 50 regulated competitors.
Could PENN follow in the footsteps of fellow omnichannel gaming operators like Caesars and go multi-brand in Canada? It’s not impossible. PENN CEO Jay Snowden said last November he thought the Hollywood Casino brand would perform well in Ontario, but how much benefit PENN would gain in reality is uncertain, suggested Birney.
“We’re always looking at opportunities to expand our brands into available markets, and Ontario is potentially a market where we could expand further beyond theScore.”
Birney
“Right now, we’re focused on getting theScore Casino really solidified in the market, but launching Hollywood within Ontario isn’t something that’s off the table,” suggested Birney. “But in the U.S., Hollywood Casino is very much related to PENN’s brick-and-mortar products, so that’s one of the things we question: There is no brick-and-mortar casino for familiarity in Canada, so how well would the Hollywood name penetrate?”
For now, theScore’s status as PENN’s only Canadian brand will continue. And not only in Ontario but in Alberta, where theScore has similarly strong brand recognition and a significant existing user base. When the western province opens its doors to commercial operators and begins regulating iGaming next year, theScore will be there, as you would expect it to be.
“We’ll be ready at launch,” Birney said. “We’re excited about the fact that the Jays do well for that market too, so we’ll get a bit of a two-for-one opportunity there. A big difference versus the Ontario launch is that we will now be able to simultaneously launch casino at the same time, with their own marketing efforts focused on different consumers. It makes us all the more excited for Alberta. We’re ready to go.”
