ESPN Bet in 2026: What Officially Ended, and What Replaced It

The Story

The cleanest way to describe ESPN Bet in 2026 is through the official releases, not through old market-share chatter. On November 6, 2025, PENN Entertainment and ESPN said they had mutually agreed to early termination of their U.S. online sports betting agreement, effective December 1, 2025. PENN said ESPN would work with the company to facilitate a transition from ESPN BET back to theScore Bet.

That same day, DraftKings and ESPN announced a separate multiyear agreement making DraftKings the exclusive Official Sportsbook and Odds Provider of ESPN, also effective December 1, 2025. So the key official development was not simply that ESPN Bet underperformed. It was that the PENN-ESPN arrangement ended early, PENN rebranded the product, and ESPN moved its official sportsbook integration to DraftKings.

The Background

The original PENN-ESPN alliance was announced in August 2023 as a long-term exclusive strategic agreement for U.S. online sports betting. PENN said at the time that ESPN would provide media and marketing services plus exclusive trademark rights for ESPN BET in exchange for $150 million per year in cash payments and warrants to purchase PENN stock. ESPN BET then launched on November 14, 2023 in 17 states on PENN's proprietary in-house platform.

By late 2025, the official PENN messaging had shifted from building ESPN BET into a podium-position brand to realigning the digital business around profitability, iCasino, and PENN's existing media-and-technology assets. In its November 6, 2025 third-quarter release, PENN said cash payments to ESPN would end at the close of the fourth quarter of 2025, unvested and performance warrants would be forfeited, and the U.S. sportsbook would be rebranded to theScore Bet with a target date of December 1, 2025, subject to regulatory approvals.

What It Means For Bettors

For customers, the official record points to continuity of operator rather than a total product restart. PENN's statements framed the change as a rebrand and transition, not as an exit from online sports betting. The product remained on PENN's own technology stack; the front-end branding and media partnership changed. That means bettors should think less in terms of "ESPN Bet disappeared" and more in terms of "PENN's sportsbook kept operating under a different media strategy."

The practical difference is on the media and distribution side. ESPN's official sportsbook and odds integrations now point to DraftKings, while PENN's U.S. sportsbook strategy is once again tied to theScore Bet branding and PENN's own digital ecosystem. In its February 26, 2026 fourth-quarter release, PENN said it had successfully rebranded the U.S. online sportsbook to theScore Bet and achieved positive adjusted EBITDA in December 2025, while continuing to expect interactive break-even adjusted EBITDA in 2026.

What Happens Next

The careful 2026 reading is narrower than a generic "ESPN Bet failed" headline. The official record supports four concrete points: the original PENN-ESPN agreement was real and expensive; ESPN BET launched in 17 states in November 2023; PENN and ESPN ended the arrangement effective December 1, 2025; and DraftKings now holds ESPN's official sportsbook and odds-provider rights. Beyond that, bettors should resist overclaiming about what one brand's rise or fall proves about the whole U.S. sportsbook business.

The safest bottom line is this: ESPN Bet is best understood today as a closed chapter in PENN's sportsbook branding strategy, not as an active standalone operator. The live operator is theScore Bet, and the live ESPN media betting relationship now belongs to DraftKings.