Penn ESPN Announce Early Termination of Billion Dollar Betting Partnership

With effect from December 1, 2025, Penn Entertainment and ESPN have mutually decided to end their US online sports betting collaboration early.

Changing the name to theScore Bet

In conjunction with the anticipated introduction of sports betting in Missouri, Penn Entertainment President and CEO Jay Snowden announced that the firm will be renaming its OSB product in the US to theScore Bet. 

At the moment, the business owns and runs theScore Bet in Ontario. 

In August 2023, Penn and ESPN signed a 10-year contract in which Penn agreed to pay ESPN $1.5 billion in cash over the first ten years in exchange for ESPN giving Penn its brand and trademark as well as marketing and media services. At that moment, Penn changed the name of its Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN BET.

Early Termination

A clause allowing any party to end the agreement after Year 3 was included in that agreement.

As part of a multiyear agreement between the two businesses, DraftKings will become ESPN's exclusive official sportsbook and odds provider on December 1, 2025.

Snowden informed callers during their Q3 2025 financial results presentation this morning that the decision with ESPN was "mutual and amicable" since the firm was "unable to establish ESPN BET as a scale player."

The corporation will be able to "strategically reinvest in the North American market... with the strongest return potential" thanks to the digital realignment.

Digital Realignment

In a statement Thursday morning, Snowden 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 capitalize on our omnichannel advantage as the nation’s leading regional retail casino operator.”

Currently, 19 US states as well as Washington, DC, have licenses and are using Penn's OSB platform.

Timed with Missouri Launch

“Looking ahead, we plan to rebrand our OSB offering in the US to theScore Bet, with a target date of December 1, 2025, to coincide with the expected launch of sports betting in Missouri, subject to regulatory approvals. We currently operate theScore Bet brand in Ontario, and our OSB product across both the US and Canada will now leverage connectivity with the theScore media app, which has approximately 4 million monthly active users across North America,” Snowden said. 

“Our OSB offerings will continue to provide a top-of-funnel cross-sell opportunity for our Hollywood-branded iCasino, which will remain integrated into our OSB product offering in states where legal, in addition to serving as a standalone iCasino app.”