Penn Entertainment and ESPN have agreed an early termination of their licensing deal, with the company’s flagship OSB to rebrand to theScore Bet on 1 December.
Penn Entertainment and ESPN have agreed an early termination of their licensing deal, with the company’s flagship online sports betting app to rebrand to theScore Bet on 1 December.
The news cements the failure of ESPN Bet to capture a significant market share in the US in the two years after the regional casino operator and online gaming business announced the multi-billion-dollar deal in August 2023.
After failing to significantly challenge market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings’ domination of the US sports betting market, the deal had become a point of dissatisfaction with some investors – including being the focus of a proxy battle by activist HG Vora.
It also marks the second major failure of a Penn media-led gaming brand after the business ended up selling Barstool Sports back to its controversial founder David Portnoy for $1 after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire it.
Jay Snowden, Penn CEO, said: “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.
“Although we made significant progress in improving our product offering and building a cohesive ecosystem with ESPN, we have mutually and amicably agreed to wind down our collaboration.
“We plan to realign our digital focus on our growing iCasino business, while continuing to capitalise on our omnichannel advantage as the nation’s leading regional retail casino operator.”
The rebrand, dating 1 December to coincide with the launch of sports betting in Missouri, follows on from theScore being the operator’s betting brand in Ontario.
Snowden added the company’s online betting offerings will continue to provide a top of funnel cross-sell opportunity for its Hollywood-branded iCasino, which will remain integrated into its sports betting product offering in legal online casino states.
Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN chairman, said: “Together, ESPN and Penn created a truly unique offering with unparalleled integrations across our various media assets.
“ESPN drove over 2.9 million new users into the Penn ecosystem, with a strong uptick in first time bettors this fall. We appreciate the collaboration we had with Penn and are now pursuing other media and marketing opportunities within this space.”
All outstanding payments to ESPN will end in Q4 2025, with Penn to remain an advertising client of the media business and the two working together to facilitate the transition to the new brand.