Penn Entertainment has seen its stock plummet as it unsuccessfully attempted to navigate the tumultuous waters of the mobile sports betting market. However, Penn recently terminated its pricey deal with ESPN and is pivoting to its core business of land-based and online casinos.
Return to Fundamentals
Between acquiring the Barstool Sports media empire and creating Barstool Sportsbook for $550 million, Penn Entertainment also engaged ESPN in a long-term deal that paid the Disney-owned company $200 million each year for two years to establish ESPN BET before the deal was rescinded in August; as a result, Penn Entertainment’s stock cratered.
Its investors grew restless to the point of mutiny, as one of its significant shareholders, Manhattan investment firm HG Vora, demanded its three nominated board members be elected to Penn’s Board of Directors. Penn opted for only two; a lawsuit followed, and HG Vora wrangled three more additions to what is now an 11-member board.
Pivoting to iGaming
Now that there is at least temporary peace in the valley, CEO Jay Snowden is pivoting away from mobile sports betting and now focusing on the company’s iGaming platform that has proven to be a revenue generator. The stock price has responded positively to recent developments, as it surged 16.8% and volume tripled after a fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday of last week.
Now that Penn has a new direction and is not trying to be a podium winner in the ferociously competitive US mobile sports betting market, where DraftKings and FanDuel control roughly 75% of the market, investors are now more bullish moving forward. Snowden, however, is taking a conservative approach to the company’s financial targets.
“Look, you have to pick a midpoint when you’re putting out a guide, and so I think that just feels comfortable right now,” Snowden said. “… Overall, Super Bowl was good; the other sports in February have been okay, so hold has been, I’d say, pretty close to where we anticipated through the first two months of the year on a combined basis. So, we built our budget from the bottom up; it told us that we felt comfortable putting break-even out there, and we’re delivering against that now.”
Alberta Beckons
Although Penn is done rebranding its sports betting platform, it did shift its ESPN BET to its more successful Canadian platform, theScore, in 21 US states on December 1, 2025. The licenses had been paid for, and the transition would be seamless as its customers in those states saw the ESPN BET banner morph into theScore. But don’t expect any more substantive changes for Penn’s US digital sports betting platform, as it appears its C-suite has resigned itself to second- or third-class status in the US mobile sports betting wars.
Chief Technology Officer Aaron LaBerge confirmed this strategy by stating, “We are not necessarily competing in that market anymore as, vis-à-vis, a FanDuel or a DraftKings. We don’t see ourselves in that realm.”
theScore Bet Expansion in Canada
However, north of the border, theScore Bet is one that Canadians are familiar with due to its popular sports information media app, which Penn acquired for $2 billion in October 2021, preceding the sportsbook. Although mobile sports betting is only licensed in Ontario, Alberta is now joining the fray, and theScore will be one of its chief participants.
Snowden has stated he expects the company to spend between $15 million and $20 million on what is projected to be a midyear launch in Canada’s province of over 5 million people.
“It’s a really important market, and we’ve all learned through the years that those initial signups you get, those are the most valuable customer cohorts that you end up with,” Snowden said. “So, we gotta make sure we launch successfully in Alberta like we did in Ontario, and when you do, you tend to hold onto your market share much more effectively.”
