PENN Entertainment shut down ESPN BET on Dec. 1, 2025. The same day, DraftKings took over as ESPN’s exclusive sportsbook. PENN replaced the ESPN BET app with theScore Bet, the brand it had run in Canada since 2019. Six months in, the numbers tell the story. theScore Bet holds about 1.2 percent of US sportsbook gross gaming revenue. DraftKings runs the betting tab inside the ESPN app. The US sportsbook market has its top five.
- FanDuel and DraftKings now hold close to 80 percent of US sportsbook revenue between them, and the swap hands DraftKings ESPN’s distribution on top
- PENN spent roughly $2 billion chasing a 20 percent share with ESPN BET, watched it peak near 7 percent and slide to 2.35 percent, then walked away
- On Dec. 1, 2025 PENN turned ESPN BET into theScore Bet and moved about 2.9 million accounts in place, while DraftKings took over ESPN’s betting tab the same day
- DraftKings is reportedly paying ESPN far less than PENN did, a return to integrated marketing rather than a branded sportsbook
WYOMISSING, Penn. – PENN signed the original ESPN deal in November 2023. The terms ran 10 years, with $1.5 billion in guaranteed marketing payments to ESPN. Warrant components pushed total deal value closer to $2 billion. To make room for ESPN, PENN had to dispose of its prior media bet. It had paid $551 million for Barstool Sports in 2020. In 2023, PENN sold Barstool back to founder Dave Portnoy for $1. The pitch to PENN’s board was simple. The ESPN brand would carry ESPN BET to 20 percent of US sports betting market share by 2027.
ESPN BET launched that November. It peaked the next month at roughly 7 percent of US gross gaming revenue, per Casino Reports’ tracking of state regulatory disclosures. Then it slid. By March 2025, the share was 3.2 percent. By the time PENN pulled the plug, ESPN BET ran at 2.35 percent of national handle in the markets where it operated.
The losses piled on faster than the brand could recover. PENN’s interactive segment lost close to $110 million in Q4 2024 alone. Q3 2025 produced $297.7 million in revenue against an adjusted EBITDA loss of $76.6 million. The original PENN-ESPN agreement had built in performance-based exit clauses. Either party could walk after year three if ESPN BET’s market share fell short of an agreed threshold by the end of 2026. Neither side bothered to wait.
PENN and ESPN announced the mutual termination on Nov. 6, 2025. The joint statement cited performance benchmarks that had not been met. PENN said it would rebrand the US app to theScore Bet effective Dec. 1, 2025. ESPN BET would not vanish entirely. The name survives as a media property only. ESPN BET Live, the betting analysis show, still airs at 6:30 p.m. ET on weekdays on ESPN2.
ESPN had its next move ready. Within hours of the PENN announcement, Disney published the DraftKings deal. Under the new agreement, DraftKings becomes the exclusive Official Sportsbook and Odds Provider of ESPN effective Dec. 1, 2025. The integration runs across ESPN’s digital and broadcast ecosystem. Full rollout is planned through 2026. Customers get access to DraftKings Sportsbook, DraftKings daily fantasy, and DraftKings Pick6. The betting tab inside the ESPN app now runs on DraftKings. Jason Robins, DraftKings’ CEO and co-founder, called the integration a fit between ESPN’s scale and DraftKings’ product capabilities.
The financial terms of the new deal have not been disclosed in full. Industry analysts have suggested ESPN is paying materially less under DraftKings than it received from PENN. The prior PENN deal had ESPN earning close to half of the $150 million annual fee PENN was contractually obligated to provide. ESPN had held co-exclusive partnerships with Caesars and DraftKings before the 2023 PENN exclusive. The new structure marks a return to integrated marketing rather than a branded sportsbook play.
The Dec. 1 transition moved approximately 2.9 million ESPN BET customers to theScore Bet. Nobody had to download a new app. PENN updated the existing app in place. The wordmark changed. The interface picked up minor cosmetic adjustments. Account balances, bonus credits, and self-exclusion records carried over under the transition plan PENN published in November. Customers who had connected ESPN accounts to ESPN BET got the option to link those accounts to DraftKings instead through a separate opt-in flow ESPN published in late November.
theScore Bet’s first months under the new brand confirmed what PENN’s earnings calls had been signaling. By March 2026, the brand held about 1.2 percent of US sportsbook gross gaming revenue across PENN’s 20 active states, per Casino Reports. theScore Bet is now the smallest of the nationally distributed US sportsbooks. PENN management has reiterated guidance that the interactive segment will reach EBITDA breakeven or better in 2026. The path runs through cost discipline and omnichannel cross-sell from PENN’s 43 brick-and-mortar properties. The company pulled its 2025 capital expenditure forecast to $685 million from prior guidance of $730 million.
The market that emerged from the swap looks like a top-five list with a long tail. FanDuel sits at roughly 44 percent of US sportsbook GGR. DraftKings holds about 34 percent and now picks up ESPN’s distribution power on top. BetMGM is near 14 percent. Fanatics climbed from 4 percent a year ago to a promotionally inflated peak of 13 percent in August 2025 before settling to 7.3 percent by March 2026. Caesars holds roughly 4 percent. theScore Bet at 1.2 percent fills out the nationally distributed brands. Hard Rock Bet operates as the exclusive sportsbook in Florida under the Seminole compact and is not part of cross-state GGR comparisons.
For US bettors, the practical question now is which app runs which experience. The ESPN app sends betting users to DraftKings. PENN’s US app is theScore Bet, same operator behind it as ESPN BET, new branding. Florida bettors still see only Hard Rock Bet. Outside Florida, the four largest legal online sportsbooks take in roughly 99 percent of US sportsbook GGR. Industry analysts have predicted this consolidation since the 2018 PASPA decision. The ESPN BET-to-theScore Bet swap is the cleanest single data point showing it.
