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Gambling and entertainment company Penn Entertainment has suggested a realignment of its gambling focus to the retail and online casino space after announcing the termination of its sports betting deal with ESPN Bet. The two parties mutually agreed to annul the 10-year, $150 million-per-year deal that they signed in August 2023 after failing to secure an adequate market share, with ESPN Bet capturing an estimated three per cent of the market rather than the 10 to 20 per cent that had been targeted. “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 President and CEO 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 added. Snowden went on to explain that Penn “plan to realign our digital focus on our growing iCasino business”, in addition to “continuing to capitalize on our omnichannel advantage as the nation’s leading regional retail casino operator”. “Our OSB (online sports betting) offerings will continue to provide top of funnel acquisition and cross-sell opportunities for our Hollywood-branded iCasino, which will remain integrated into our OSB product in states where legal, in addition to serving as a standalone iCasino app,” he added. The company’s ‘Penn Play programme’ has 33 million members, and Penn will focus on cross-selling to these users. The company’s third quarter earnings presentation highlighted that the “iCasino business achieved its highest quarterly gaming revenue to date, an improvement of nearly 40 per cent year-over-year, driven by record cross-sell from OSB of 62 per cent and growth from our standalone Hollywood and theScore Bet iCasino apps”, while the land-based business revenue was reported at $1.4 billion. Though Penn has decided to focus on the casino market, the company will continue to operate in the online sportsbooks space, and aims to relaunch its ‘theScore Bet’ product by 1 December, to coincide with the launch of legal sports betting in Missouri. The ESPN Bet app will be automatically updated to theScore Bet, with Snowden explaining that the app will aim to “leverage connectivity with theScore media app”, which has around four million monthly users in North America.
