New sports betting customers in Missouri that might be looking for ESPN Bet this morning will instead see theScore Bet.
Monday was the day Penn Entertainment‘s $2 billion deal with Disney for the ESPN Bet partnership officially came to an end. The two mutually ended the 10-year deal early last month after the brand failed to hit the sports betting market share goals both sides had hoped for when the deal was announced in August 2023.
Penn pushed the update in a “seamless overnight transition” according to its press release, meaning anyone with the ESPN Bet app downloaded woke up to theScore Bet in its place.
The change happened across all of Penn’s 21 online sports betting states.
Frictionless move from ESPN Bet
The biggest positive of the transition is that it was frictionless for Penn’s digital customers. The app logo includes the same color scheme and a pop-up message welcomed users to the new brand.
“Welcome to theScore Bet!” the pop-up reads. “ESPN Bet is now theScore Bet. If you’ve previously played with ESPN Bet your full account has carried over, including your wallet, setting, and any open wagers – log in now using your ESPN Bet credentials.”
That smooth switchover was not the case when Penn switched from its first sports betting partner, Barstool Sports, in November 2023. Instead, Penn had to ask its digital database to download and sign up for a new ESPN Bet account.
Penn’s online casino brand, Hollywood Casino, remains available through theScore Bet app in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
DraftKings touts ESPN partnership
Anyone looking for ESPN Bet on the Apple App Store will see theScore Bet, which says “ESPN Bet is now theScore Bet” in its description. But DraftKings is fighting for that download, too.
DraftKings is the official sportsbook of ESPN now that Penn is out of the picture. A banner including that information and the ESPN logo sits right under theScore Bet on the results page when searching for “ESPN Bet.”
The ESPN home page also displayed a pop-up to announce its new partner in DraftKings.
