Canadian brand theScore Bet is returning to the U.S. on a much bigger scale as PENN Entertainment announced on Thursday that it is ending its ESPN Bet joint venture with Disney after just over two unprofitable years.
PENN will rebrand its existing ESPN Bet sportsbook app as theScore Bet from Dec. 1, PENN CEO Jay Snowden confirmed on a Nov. 6 earnings call, bringing together its separate American and Canadian online sports betting products under the brand that is so familiar to Canadian sports fans and gamblers.
“We are realigning our digital focus to leverage the strength of our U.S. iCasino and Canadian operations, while continuing to use OSB to drive both the acquisition of customers with significant lifetime value and unique cross-sell opportunities across PENN’s retail and digital assets,” said Snowden.
PENN abandons ESPN Bet gamble
PENN signed a 10-year, $2 billion USD deal in 2023 to launch ESPN Bet in the U.S. after the failure of its Barstool Sportsbook venture south of the border, and paid $150 million USD annually to license the brand.
At the time of its launch, Snowden stated the goal was for ESPN Bet to capture as much as 20% of the U.S. online sports betting market, and that PENN did not enter the venture just to get only 5%. “When we first announced our partnership with ESPN, both sides made it clear that we expected to compete for a podium position in the space,” said the CEO on Thursday.
But, with eight years left of the initial agreement, ESPN Bet reputedly has only around 3%.
Snowden had signposted multiple times that PENN may bail, confirming that the deal had a three-year break clause. With ESPN Bet failing to improve its standing despite significant investment, it didn’t even make it to that three-year mark.
theScore returning south after three-year absence
While ESPN Bet has struggled desperately in the U.S., theScore Bet has thrived in Ontario’s iGaming market, where it has been operational since regulation began in April 2022.
PENN bought Canadian sports media company theScore in October 2021 from its previous owners, John Levy and his family, for around $2.1 billion USD. Its flagship media app is available across North America. theScore Bet also had some presence in the U.S. as a small market player in New Jersey, Colorado, Iowa and Indiana before its then-new parent company decided it would be better off focused on its home province and shut down those U.S. operations on July 1, 2022.
Now, theScore Bet will go live in the 19 states plus D.C. in which ESPN Bet was already doing business, as well as in the new Missouri sports betting market that is slated to open on Dec. 1. The American app will be a rebranded version of the ESPN Bet app, not a mirror image of the Ontario version.
Snowden said that reintroducing it to the U.S. will allow PENN to leverage connectivity with theScore media app, which has approximately four million monthly active users across North America. Around one-third of those are in Canada and two-thirds in the U.S., said Snowden.
PENN lauds Ontario success
Snowden and other PENN executives repeatedly cite theScore’s operations in Ontario as a highlight of its Interactive business.
The CEO said earlier this year that the province is its number one iGaming market in terms of revenue, gross profit and contribution margin. Late in 2024, PENN suggested theScoreBet held a double-digit market share in Ontario online sports betting and high single digits in overall Ontario iGaming as it battled with 50 other licensed operators.
PENN also has high hopes that success will translate to good standing in Alberta’s upcoming iGaming market, slated to open sometime next year. Snowden has said he expects Alberta to be a top three or four market for PENN Interactive, “given the affinity for and loyalty to theScore brand across the country.”
Snowden noted that ending the ESPN partnership and the fixed media spend that came with it will allow PENN to invest more in Canada as it looks ahead to further growth in Ontario and the opening of Alberta.
“It is the right time to realign our interactive focus, prioritizing our digital assets in Canada and our Hollywood iCasino product to further leverage our core retail casino business and overall omnichannel business model,” added Snowden on Thursday’s call. “Our digital business is primarily focused on our Canadian operations and iCasino-first markets in the U.S.”
