Amid a massive NBA gambling scandal, ESPN, one of the league’s top partners, is exiting its own betting arrangement.
On Thursday, Penn Entertainment and ESPN announced the early termination of U.S. online sports book ESPN Bet, effective Dec. 1, 2025. ESPN is pulling its name and marketing power from the partnership; ESPN Bet will be rebranded theScore Bet.
Under the original agreement, ESPN provided Penn with its name and trademark, as well as media and marketing services in exchange for $150 million a year in cash payments and warrants to purchase Penn common stock. The deal, first struck in August 2023, had a 10-year term. It included a clause that would allow either party to terminate after year three “if specific market share performance thresholds were not met.” We didn’t quite make it through year three.
Jimmy Pitaro, the chairman of ESPN, said in a statement that his company is “now pursuing other media and marketing opportunities within this space.” No one here is uttering the letters N-B-A. The final payment(s) to ESPN will cease in the current quarter. Penn will continue to advertise on ESPN, the companies said.
“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.”
ESPN found itself in a tough spot when, last month, the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office arrested current NBA player Terry Rozier, former player Damon Jones and former player and current Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups in a recent federal probe into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games. ESPN covered the NBA scandal while paying the league billions of dollars for media rights, and all the while the ESPN Bet chyron populated the lower-third of the screen. It was weird, and now it’s a little less weird.
ESPN is owned by Disney, which also owns the ABC broadcast network, the home to the NBA Finals.
