PENN Entertainment confirms termination of ESPN partnership during Q3 results

PENN Entertainment announced the termination of its ESPN partnership as part of its Q3 financial results.

PENN Entertainment’s partnership with ESPN’s sports betting offering, ESPN Bet, has come to an end in a “mutual and amicable” termination, according to an announcement made in the company’s Q3 financial results. PENN’s marketing exclusivity with ESPN will end on December 1, 2025, with cash payments coming to a close at the end of the year.

PENN Entertainment plans to rebrand its online sports betting to theScore Bet, starting from December 1, 2025.

“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 PENN CEO and President Jay Snowden. “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.”

He went on to note that PENN planned to realign its digital focus in the U.S and Canada via theScore Bet. Online sports betting will continue to be offered in states where it’s legal, while PENN will also operate a standalone iCasino app for those states where it is not.

theScore Bet currently has around four million monthly active users across North America, while PENN also retains around 2.9 million digital users acquired via the ESPN relationship.

Beyond the termination of the partnership, PENN said that the below-average performance of its online sports betting resulted in gaming revenues being lower than expected. Nonetheless, the North American iCasino arm of the business achieved its highest quarterly gaming revenue yet, seeing an increase of nearly 40% year-over-year.

“The momentum in our iCasino business continues to benefit from growing average MAUs, which experienced the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter increases,” said Snowden.

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