Penn Entertainment on Wednesday launched a new in-app feature called Mint Club, a step toward tighter integration between ESPN Bet and ESPN’s broader digital ecosystem as the company works to boost engagement and improve market share.
Mint Club offers users who link their media and sports betting accounts a personalized experience across both apps, including real-time bet tracking, exclusive promotions, and customizable scoreboards, according to Penn. ESPN Bet wagers will now appear within the “Scores” section of the ESPN app, allowing users to follow active bets and parlays alongside live games.
The new feature also includes weekly deposit bonuses, profit boosts, and branded merchandise giveaways for members. Penn says more enhancements are coming, including dynamic in-game bet tracking and deeper in-app personalization.
Pressure on Penn to show success
Mint Club represents one of Penn’s more visible attempts to deliver on the original promise of the ESPN Bet partnership: turning ESPN’s massive media reach into a competitive edge in online sports betting.
ESPN Bet added account linking in November 2024. As of the end of February, 230,000 people had linked their ESPN Bet and ESPN accounts, Penn CTO Aaron LaBerge said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
That is roughly 0.9% of the ESPN app’s 25.7 million monthly active users.
The company faces mounting pressure to demonstrate that its $1.5 billion, 10-year licensing deal made in 2023 with ESPN is beginning to pay off. Since launching ESPN Bet last November, the company has struggled to capture significant market share. The app, which replaced Barstool Sportsbook, averaged just 3% of total handle across active states during its first NFL season.
CEO Jay Snowden had previously set a 2024 goal of reaching 7% handle share, though performance has lagged in key markets, including New York, where ESPN Bet didn’t go live until midway through the NFL season.
Penn ramps up ESPN Bet team
The Mint Club rollout is part of a broader push by Penn’s newly restructured product and engineering teams to improve ESPN Bet’s functionality and stickiness. Over the past six months, Penn has brought in several high-profile hires, including Chief Product Officer Billy Turchin, a former FanDuel executive, and a trio of former Disney and ESPN veterans now overseeing design, engineering, and technology.
Those hires report to LaBerge, who joined from Disney last year and has been tasked with aligning the sportsbook more closely with ESPN’s media platforms.
While Penn has pointed to recent app updates and onboarding improvements, executives acknowledged in February that adoption has been slower than anticipated. Snowden also noted that either party has the right to exit the ESPN Bet agreement in 2026 if key performance targets aren’t met.
