TheScore Bet is once again operating on American soil. The official launch day was December 1, which happened to be the same date Missouri sports betting went live. The Penn Entertainment-owned brand is live in 21 U.S. jurisdictions.
The original Missouri sports betting plans did not include theScore Bet, as the slot belonged to ESPN Bet. Once Penn and Disney, ESPN’s parent company, mutually agreed to end their partnership early, theScore Bet factored into the equation.
Players with ESPN Bet accounts didn’t have to worry about closing an account or funding a new one. A quick app update was the only thing players needed to worry about. All account settings, unsettled sports bets, and responsible gaming tools are still the same.
TheScore Bet is natively integrated with theScore, a leading sports media app that offers real-time updates and alerts, along with personalized content feeds. When paired together, users can take advantage of a deeply connected media and betting experience.
Aaron LaBarge, Penn Entertainment’s chief technology officer and head of interactive
commented on theScore Bet’s introduction, in some cases reintroduction, to millions of fans across the country.
“We look forward to creating the same fan interaction with theScore Bet brand in the U.S. as we’ve done in Ontario and delivering players more of what they want – rewards, offers, and creative promotions,” LaBarge said.
If theScore Bet sounds familiar, it’s probably because this is not the first time the brand has offered online sports betting on U.S. soil. The previous version of the app launched in New Jersey in 2019. The Garden State was the first of several legal U.S. Sports betting jurisdictions where the Toronto-based company started taking bets.
The operator later expanded to Iowa, Colorado, and Indiana.
By 2022, customers from all four states were notified that theScore Bet was exiting the U.S. The move came a year after Penn completed the acquisition of Score Media and Gaming Inc. Penn decided to make theScore its Ontario sports betting brand and use Barstool Sportsbook its U.S. brand.
Like with ESPN Bet, the Barstool deal was a short-lived partnership. TheScore also had plans of launching an online casino app, but the U.S. exit prevented it from happening.
This time around, theScore Bet has a much larger U.S. sports betting presence.
Like with the former ESPN Bet app, players can still access the Hollywood Casino app simply by clicking on the casino icon located toward the bottom right corner. Hollywood Casino is another Penn Entertainment brand.
Even though theScore Bet is available in 20-plus states, the online casino aspect of the platform is limited to legal iGaming states. It means only players in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia can place sports bets and play slots from the same platform. Players in those states can download the standalone Hollywood Casino app.
