Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Gambling and entertainment company Penn Entertainment suggests realigning its gambling focus on retail and online casino Space after announcing its end Sports betting deal with espn Condition.
The two parties mutually agreed to cancel the 10-year, $150 million-per-year deal signed in August 2023 after failing to gain sufficient market share, which saw ESPN Bet capture an estimated three percent of the market instead of the targeted 10 to 20 percent.
Penn President and CEO Jay Snowden said, “When we first announced our partnership with ESPN, both parties made it clear that we expect to compete for a podium spot in the region.”
“While we have made significant progress in improving our product offering and building a cohesive ecosystem with ESPN, we have agreed to mutually and amicably end our collaboration,” he said.
Snowden explained that Penn plans to “refocus our digital focus on our growing iCasino business in addition to capitalizing on our omnichannel advantage as the nation’s leading regional retail casino operator.”
He added, “Our OSB (online sports betting) offering will continue to provide top of the funnel acquisition and cross-sell opportunities for our Hollywood-branded iCasino, which will remain integrated into our OSB product in legal states, in addition to serving as a standalone iCasino app.” The company’s ‘Pen Play Program’ has 33 million members and Penn will focus on cross-selling to these users.
of the company third quarter earnings presentation It was highlighted that “iCasino business achieved its highest performance in the quarter gaming Revenues to date have improved nearly 40 percent year-over-year, driven by record cross-sells of 62 percent from OSB and growth of our standalone Hollywood and Score Bet iCasino apps, while land-based business revenues were reported at $1.4 billion.
Although Penn has decided to focus on the casino market, the company will continue to operate in online sportsbooks space, and aims to relaunch its ‘TheScore Bet’ product by December 1 to coincide with the launch of legal sports betting in Missouri.
The ESPN Bet app will automatically update to Score Bet, with Snowden explaining that the goal of the app will be to “take advantage of the connectivity with the Score Media app”, which has approximately four million monthly users in North America.