Penn Entertainment’s foray into mobile sports betting has been disastrous, leading many bettors to stick with trusted offshore betting sites, but the momentum appears to be shifting as its iGaming platform, Hollywood Casino, is gaining ground and propping up the stock price.
Penn’s Virtual Casino Is a Pleasant Reality
Penn’s online casino growth has sparked a stock rally from what has been a plunging proposition. After its disastrous and costly ESPN Bet mobile sports betting experiment across multiple legal sports betting states, Penn Entertainment has terminated that deal and refocused on its core strength of online casino gambling, which is now paying off.
The four US states and one Canadian province (Ontario) where its Hollywood Casino app is available showed a combined net gaming revenue increase of 362%, with average monthly users spiking 345% year-over-year.
Due to the recent earnings report, gaming analyst Jeffrey Stantial has increased his target price on Penn Entertainment from $23 to $25.
“We come away from meetings positive on the setup into 2H26,” Stantial wrote.
“Overall, we got the sense PENN’s Interactive business continues to pace on plan now six months following ESPN termination and pivot to iCasino-led strategy,” Stantial added.
The company is now concentrating on the Alberta launch on July 13th, anticipating even greater dividends. The company intends to spend approximately $20 million on customer acquisition in Alberta.
“Look, we’ve launched in Ontario and enjoy a very nice market share there today,” said Chief Technology Officer Aaron LaBerge. “It’s a big part of our gaming business, and we expect to see similar market share there based on the investments we’re going to make.”
The Road Back
Penn Entertainment, originally a regional land-based casino operator, acquired both the media and gaming platforms from Toronto-based theScore (Score Media and Gaming) in October 2021 for approximately $2 billion. That allowed Penn access to the Ontario mobile sports betting market, but its designs on the US market are when things unraveled.
Penn purchased the Barstool Sports media empire for $550 million, using the bro-cultured brand to form Barstool Sportsbook. That business barely got off the ground before Penn CEO Jay Snowden entered into a 10-year lease with Disney to use its subsidiary’s name and platform to create ESPN Bet.
According to the deal, Disney demanded that Penn divest itself of anything related to Barstool Sports, which required Penn to sell Barstool Sports back to the founder, Dave Portnoy, for $1, with the promise that it would receive 50% of the profits if it were sold. The mobile sports betting platform that was expressly created after the acquisition, Barstool Sportsbook, was summarily shuttered by Penn before entering into the agreement with ESPN.
However, the new entity, which became ESPN Bet, barely gained more market share than Barstool Sportsbook, earning approximately 3% of the national audience. In the meantime, Penn’s stock price began to plummet, reaching a high of $136.47 in March 2021 to $11.67 in February 2026, shortly after Penn exited the 10-year deal early with Disney-owned ESPN.
After replacing ESPN Bet with theScore in the USA and focusing on its iGaming markets in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, where platforms strongly encourage responsible betting habits, the stock has rebounded and is now hovering at $22 per share at the time of this mid-June writing.
