Amid an NBA gambling scandal, ESPN, one of the league’s partners, is exiting the betting business.
On Thursday, PENN Entertainment and ESPN announced the early termination of U.S. online sports book ESPN BET, effective Dec. 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 Jay Snowden, CEO and president of PENN Entertainment.“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 refocus our digital strategy on our growing iCasino business, while continuing to capitalize on our omnichannel advantage as the nation’s leading regional retail casino operator.”
Snowden continued, “Looking ahead, we plan to rebrand our OSB offering in the U.S. 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 U.S. and Canada will now leverage connectivity with the theScore media app, which has approximately 4 million monthly active users across North America. 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.”
Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN, 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.”