Updated July 2026
TL;DR: Why ESPN Bet Failed
- ESPN and Penn Entertainment launched ESPN Bet in November 2023 under a 10-year agreement.
- The sportsbook brought 2.9 million new users into Penn’s ecosystem but remained at about 3% of the U.S. mobile sports-betting market late in its run.
- ESPN’s reach created awareness and trial. It could not quickly overcome bettor loyalty to FanDuel and DraftKings or close the product gap with established operators.
- ESPN and Penn ended the agreement on December 1, 2025. Penn rebranded the sportsbook as theScore Bet.
- ESPN immediately named DraftKings its exclusive official sportsbook and odds provider. The sportsbook disappeared; ESPN’s betting strategy did not.
ESPN Bet had almost everything a new sportsbook could want: the most recognizable brand in American sports media, access to ESPN’s audience and prominent integration across scores, fantasy sports, programming and digital products.
It still could not become a major sportsbook.
ESPN and Penn Entertainment ended their 10-year agreement after roughly two years. The result was not a retreat from sports betting for ESPN. It was a change in strategy. Instead of trying to turn Penn’s sportsbook into a market leader under the ESPN name, the network partnered with DraftKings, one of the leaders ESPN Bet had failed to displace.
The short life of ESPN Bet says something important about the sports betting business: distribution can create trial, but it cannot manufacture product loyalty.
The Original ESPN Bet Ambition
Penn and ESPN announced their alliance in August 2023. Penn received the exclusive right to use the ESPN Bet name for online sports betting in the United States and agreed to pay ESPN $1.5 billion over 10 years. ESPN also received warrants initially valued at approximately $500 million, with the possibility of additional warrants if the sportsbook reached certain market-share targets.
The plan was built around reach. Penn said ESPN offered more than 105 million monthly digital visitors, hundreds of millions of social followers, 25 million ESPN+ subscribers and the country’s leading fantasy-sports database.
That audience would be connected to a sportsbook through ESPN programming, content, talent and digital products. Penn CEO Jay Snowden said the combination could propel ESPN Bet into a “strong podium position.”
The launch in November 2023 produced attention and new accounts. By the end of the relationship, ESPN said it had driven more than 2.9 million new users into Penn’s ecosystem. Penn also reported a strong increase in first-time bettors during the 2025 football season.
Those numbers prove ESPN’s distribution worked. They do not prove the sportsbook worked at the scale the partnership required.
Market Share Never Matched the Brand
By late 2025, ESPN Bet remained a distant player in U.S. mobile sports betting. Sports Business Journal, citing Bloomberg, reported that the sportsbook ranked seventh with about 3% market share.
That was nowhere near the podium position Penn and ESPN had discussed at launch.
FanDuel and DraftKings had spent years building customer habits before ESPN Bet arrived. Both grew from daily fantasy sports, developed large databases of bettors and invested heavily in technology, promotions and market access as legal sports betting expanded across the United States.
Sportsbook customers also do not behave like a general media audience. They care about speed, pricing, promotions, available markets, live-betting features, withdrawals and familiarity with an app they may already use several times per week.
The ESPN name could persuade people to download an app or open an account. Keeping them active required the sportsbook itself to become a preferred product. ESPN Bet struggled to offer some of the popular features already available through larger competitors, according to reporting summarized by Sports Business Journal.
Brand trust opened the door. It did not create a durable reason for experienced bettors to leave the platforms where their money, rewards and habits already lived.
ESPN’s Integration Arrived, but the Market Did Not Move Enough
ESPN and Penn continued building the connected experience promised at launch.
In November 2024, users gained the ability to link ESPN and ESPN Bet accounts and track upcoming, live and settled bets inside ESPN’s app and website. The companies later added more personalized betting prompts tied to favorite teams, players and fantasy rosters. FanCenter and the Fantasy Bet Builder pushed the integration further in 2025.
These were logical products. ESPN’s scores, fantasy leagues, reporting and live programming created natural entry points into betting.
But the deeper integrations arrived after FanDuel and DraftKings had already built commanding positions. They helped ESPN Bet become more connected to ESPN without solving the larger competitive problem.
The distinction matters. ESPN Bet was not ignored. Millions of users entered the Penn ecosystem. The partnership failed because the attention and customer acquisition did not translate into the market position or economics expected from a fixed $150 million annual payment to ESPN.
Why ESPN and Penn Ended the Deal Early
On November 6, 2025, ESPN and Penn announced that their agreement would end effective December 1.
Snowden acknowledged that the original expectation had been to compete for a podium position. Penn said it would replace fixed national media spending with more efficient performance-based and regional marketing while concentrating on its iCasino business, casino customers and markets where it saw stronger returns.
Penn rebranded its U.S. sportsbook as theScore Bet, bringing it under the same brand used by its Canadian operation. It also retained the database of 2.9 million digital users acquired during the ESPN relationship.
The financial unwind reflected how far the deal had moved from its original 10-year vision. Cash payments to ESPN ended after the fourth quarter of 2025. ESPN retained warrants for 7,957,210 Penn shares, while its unvested and performance warrants were forfeited.
Penn did not abandon online sports betting. It reduced the role of an expensive national media brand and returned to an ecosystem it controlled more directly.
ESPN Chose DraftKings Instead
ESPN announced its DraftKings agreement the same day it announced the Penn termination.
DraftKings became ESPN’s exclusive official sportsbook and odds provider on December 1, 2025. DraftKings sportsbook, daily fantasy and Pick6 products began appearing across ESPN’s ecosystem, with a broader rollout planned for 2026.
This was a more natural division of labor. ESPN could contribute its audience, programming, fantasy products and ability to place betting information throughout the sports experience. DraftKings already had the sportsbook technology, established customer base and market position.
ESPN no longer needed its name on the betting app to participate in the betting economy. It could send customers and attention toward an incumbent operator without carrying the expectation that a rebranded sportsbook would become a top-three platform.
For Penn, ESPN’s audience had been treated as a possible competitive moat. The DraftKings pivot recast that audience as a powerful distribution channel.
The ESPN BET name did not disappear entirely. ESPN repositioned it as a betting-content brand built around ESPN BET Live, digital coverage and DraftKings integrations. What ended was the ESPN-branded sportsbook.
What ESPN Bet Reveals About Media-Branded Sportsbooks
ESPN Bet was not the first attempt to convert a media audience into a sportsbook. Fox Bet, SI Sportsbook and MaximBet also disappeared, while Penn had already moved away from Barstool Sportsbook before adopting the ESPN brand.
The pattern does not mean media is unimportant to betting. Sportsbooks spend heavily to reach fans because games, commentary, scores and fantasy sports create the demand around the wager.
It means a familiar media name cannot substitute for the operational advantages of a mature sportsbook.
The strongest operators built customer relationships directly through fantasy sports, betting products, promotions and years of repeated use. A media company may own the fan’s attention before a game. That does not mean it owns the customer’s betting behavior.
ESPN ultimately arrived at a model closer to its traditional strength: become the place where fans encounter sports, odds and betting content, then let an established operator handle the wager.
The Media Ethics Question Remains
The end of ESPN Bet removed the ESPN name from the sportsbook, but it did not separate ESPN from sports betting.
DraftKings odds and products are integrated across the same media company that reports injuries, breaks news, employs insiders and analyzes the games people bet on. ESPN says its partnership includes responsible-gaming education and awareness. The underlying conflict still deserves scrutiny.
SportsEpreneur has examined ESPN’s sports-betting and journalistic-integrity concerns as well as the broader risks surrounding sports betting and college students. We have also looked at ESPN’s influence over the College Football Playoff, another example of the network reporting on a sports system in which it holds major commercial interests.
None of that proves ESPN alters its journalism to serve a betting partner. It does mean disclosure, internal safeguards and a visible separation between editorial decisions and betting revenue remain important.
The Final Word on ESPN Bet
ESPN Bet showed that one of the largest audiences in sports could produce millions of sportsbook users without producing a leading sportsbook.
Penn gained customers and product experience, but not the market share needed to justify the original arrangement. ESPN learned it could remain central to sports betting without trying to build a market leader around its own name.
The app changed from ESPN Bet to theScore Bet. ESPN’s odds provider changed to DraftKings. The larger convergence of sports media, fantasy products and gambling continued.
Originally published April 2024. Updated July 2026 by the SportsEpreneur team.
At SportsEpreneur, we analyze how sports, media and business collide. Want your brand featured in high-authority sports business content? Work with us.
Related SportsEpreneur Coverage
Sources
Content Disclaimer: Our articles and podcasts, including those on sports betting, are for entertainment and informational purposes only and are not intended to promote or endorse betting. If you choose to bet, we urge you to do so responsibly. Help is available for those facing challenges with gambling. Contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700 or visit ncpgambling.org. North Carolina residents can also find resources at More Than a Game. If you need immediate assistance, call 1-800-GAMBLER. For more details, see our full disclaimer.
Eric Kasimov is the founder of SportsEpreneur, part of the KazSource media network. Since launching the platform in 2015, he has hosted over 500 podcast episodes, written and published more than 1,500 articles, and advised business leaders, founders, and creators on building authority through media strategy.
Through his brands — KazSource, KazCM, SportsEpreneur, and QuietLoud Studios — Eric leads teams that produce podcasts, develop brand platforms, and help companies grow through modern content ecosystems. He also scaled KazSource Insurance into a seven-figure boutique agency, providing the foundation for the broader media network he operates today.
His work has been featured in Forbes, Axios, and Front Office Sports, and his podcasts have included conversations with top founders, investors, and athletes turned entrepreneurs.
Why ESPN Bet Failed: Market Share, Penn and the DraftKings Pivot
Updated July 2026
TL;DR: Why ESPN Bet Failed
ESPN Bet had almost everything a new sportsbook could want: the most recognizable brand in American sports media, access to ESPN’s audience and prominent integration across scores, fantasy sports, programming and digital products.
It still could not become a major sportsbook.
ESPN and Penn Entertainment ended their 10-year agreement after roughly two years. The result was not a retreat from sports betting for ESPN. It was a change in strategy. Instead of trying to turn Penn’s sportsbook into a market leader under the ESPN name, the network partnered with DraftKings, one of the leaders ESPN Bet had failed to displace.
The short life of ESPN Bet says something important about the sports betting business: distribution can create trial, but it cannot manufacture product loyalty.
The Original ESPN Bet Ambition
Penn and ESPN announced their alliance in August 2023. Penn received the exclusive right to use the ESPN Bet name for online sports betting in the United States and agreed to pay ESPN $1.5 billion over 10 years. ESPN also received warrants initially valued at approximately $500 million, with the possibility of additional warrants if the sportsbook reached certain market-share targets.
The plan was built around reach. Penn said ESPN offered more than 105 million monthly digital visitors, hundreds of millions of social followers, 25 million ESPN+ subscribers and the country’s leading fantasy-sports database.
That audience would be connected to a sportsbook through ESPN programming, content, talent and digital products. Penn CEO Jay Snowden said the combination could propel ESPN Bet into a “strong podium position.”
The launch in November 2023 produced attention and new accounts. By the end of the relationship, ESPN said it had driven more than 2.9 million new users into Penn’s ecosystem. Penn also reported a strong increase in first-time bettors during the 2025 football season.
Those numbers prove ESPN’s distribution worked. They do not prove the sportsbook worked at the scale the partnership required.
Market Share Never Matched the Brand
By late 2025, ESPN Bet remained a distant player in U.S. mobile sports betting. Sports Business Journal, citing Bloomberg, reported that the sportsbook ranked seventh with about 3% market share.
That was nowhere near the podium position Penn and ESPN had discussed at launch.
FanDuel and DraftKings had spent years building customer habits before ESPN Bet arrived. Both grew from daily fantasy sports, developed large databases of bettors and invested heavily in technology, promotions and market access as legal sports betting expanded across the United States.
Sportsbook customers also do not behave like a general media audience. They care about speed, pricing, promotions, available markets, live-betting features, withdrawals and familiarity with an app they may already use several times per week.
The ESPN name could persuade people to download an app or open an account. Keeping them active required the sportsbook itself to become a preferred product. ESPN Bet struggled to offer some of the popular features already available through larger competitors, according to reporting summarized by Sports Business Journal.
Brand trust opened the door. It did not create a durable reason for experienced bettors to leave the platforms where their money, rewards and habits already lived.
ESPN’s Integration Arrived, but the Market Did Not Move Enough
ESPN and Penn continued building the connected experience promised at launch.
In November 2024, users gained the ability to link ESPN and ESPN Bet accounts and track upcoming, live and settled bets inside ESPN’s app and website. The companies later added more personalized betting prompts tied to favorite teams, players and fantasy rosters. FanCenter and the Fantasy Bet Builder pushed the integration further in 2025.
These were logical products. ESPN’s scores, fantasy leagues, reporting and live programming created natural entry points into betting.
But the deeper integrations arrived after FanDuel and DraftKings had already built commanding positions. They helped ESPN Bet become more connected to ESPN without solving the larger competitive problem.
The distinction matters. ESPN Bet was not ignored. Millions of users entered the Penn ecosystem. The partnership failed because the attention and customer acquisition did not translate into the market position or economics expected from a fixed $150 million annual payment to ESPN.
Why ESPN and Penn Ended the Deal Early
On November 6, 2025, ESPN and Penn announced that their agreement would end effective December 1.
Snowden acknowledged that the original expectation had been to compete for a podium position. Penn said it would replace fixed national media spending with more efficient performance-based and regional marketing while concentrating on its iCasino business, casino customers and markets where it saw stronger returns.
Penn rebranded its U.S. sportsbook as theScore Bet, bringing it under the same brand used by its Canadian operation. It also retained the database of 2.9 million digital users acquired during the ESPN relationship.
The financial unwind reflected how far the deal had moved from its original 10-year vision. Cash payments to ESPN ended after the fourth quarter of 2025. ESPN retained warrants for 7,957,210 Penn shares, while its unvested and performance warrants were forfeited.
Penn did not abandon online sports betting. It reduced the role of an expensive national media brand and returned to an ecosystem it controlled more directly.
ESPN Chose DraftKings Instead
ESPN announced its DraftKings agreement the same day it announced the Penn termination.
DraftKings became ESPN’s exclusive official sportsbook and odds provider on December 1, 2025. DraftKings sportsbook, daily fantasy and Pick6 products began appearing across ESPN’s ecosystem, with a broader rollout planned for 2026.
This was a more natural division of labor. ESPN could contribute its audience, programming, fantasy products and ability to place betting information throughout the sports experience. DraftKings already had the sportsbook technology, established customer base and market position.
ESPN no longer needed its name on the betting app to participate in the betting economy. It could send customers and attention toward an incumbent operator without carrying the expectation that a rebranded sportsbook would become a top-three platform.
For Penn, ESPN’s audience had been treated as a possible competitive moat. The DraftKings pivot recast that audience as a powerful distribution channel.
The ESPN BET name did not disappear entirely. ESPN repositioned it as a betting-content brand built around ESPN BET Live, digital coverage and DraftKings integrations. What ended was the ESPN-branded sportsbook.
What ESPN Bet Reveals About Media-Branded Sportsbooks
ESPN Bet was not the first attempt to convert a media audience into a sportsbook. Fox Bet, SI Sportsbook and MaximBet also disappeared, while Penn had already moved away from Barstool Sportsbook before adopting the ESPN brand.
The pattern does not mean media is unimportant to betting. Sportsbooks spend heavily to reach fans because games, commentary, scores and fantasy sports create the demand around the wager.
It means a familiar media name cannot substitute for the operational advantages of a mature sportsbook.
The strongest operators built customer relationships directly through fantasy sports, betting products, promotions and years of repeated use. A media company may own the fan’s attention before a game. That does not mean it owns the customer’s betting behavior.
ESPN ultimately arrived at a model closer to its traditional strength: become the place where fans encounter sports, odds and betting content, then let an established operator handle the wager.
The Media Ethics Question Remains
The end of ESPN Bet removed the ESPN name from the sportsbook, but it did not separate ESPN from sports betting.
DraftKings odds and products are integrated across the same media company that reports injuries, breaks news, employs insiders and analyzes the games people bet on. ESPN says its partnership includes responsible-gaming education and awareness. The underlying conflict still deserves scrutiny.
SportsEpreneur has examined ESPN’s sports-betting and journalistic-integrity concerns as well as the broader risks surrounding sports betting and college students. We have also looked at ESPN’s influence over the College Football Playoff, another example of the network reporting on a sports system in which it holds major commercial interests.
None of that proves ESPN alters its journalism to serve a betting partner. It does mean disclosure, internal safeguards and a visible separation between editorial decisions and betting revenue remain important.
The Final Word on ESPN Bet
ESPN Bet showed that one of the largest audiences in sports could produce millions of sportsbook users without producing a leading sportsbook.
Penn gained customers and product experience, but not the market share needed to justify the original arrangement. ESPN learned it could remain central to sports betting without trying to build a market leader around its own name.
The app changed from ESPN Bet to theScore Bet. ESPN’s odds provider changed to DraftKings. The larger convergence of sports media, fantasy products and gambling continued.
Originally published April 2024. Updated July 2026 by the SportsEpreneur team.
At SportsEpreneur, we analyze how sports, media and business collide. Want your brand featured in high-authority sports business content? Work with us.
Related SportsEpreneur Coverage
Sources
Content Disclaimer: Our articles and podcasts, including those on sports betting, are for entertainment and informational purposes only and are not intended to promote or endorse betting. If you choose to bet, we urge you to do so responsibly. Help is available for those facing challenges with gambling. Contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700 or visit ncpgambling.org. North Carolina residents can also find resources at More Than a Game. If you need immediate assistance, call 1-800-GAMBLER. For more details, see our full disclaimer.
Eric Kasimov is the founder of SportsEpreneur, part of the KazSource media network. Since launching the platform in 2015, he has hosted over 500 podcast episodes, written and published more than 1,500 articles, and advised business leaders, founders, and creators on building authority through media strategy.
Through his brands — KazSource, KazCM, SportsEpreneur, and QuietLoud Studios — Eric leads teams that produce podcasts, develop brand platforms, and help companies grow through modern content ecosystems. He also scaled KazSource Insurance into a seven-figure boutique agency, providing the foundation for the broader media network he operates today.
His work has been featured in Forbes, Axios, and Front Office Sports, and his podcasts have included conversations with top founders, investors, and athletes turned entrepreneurs.