Penn Entertainment announced on Monday that it recently launched a stand-alone iGaming platform called theScore Casino in Ontario.
New Arrival Joins Crowded Market
Ontario does not lack for mobile sports betting and iGaming apps, with 49 companies operating approximately 80 platforms. Penn Entertainment already had theScore Bet in operation to accept sports wagers, but now theScore Casino has launched, boasting a wide variety of digital slots, table games and live dealer content.
“We’re excited to introduce our dedicated iCasino product in Ontario under the well-known and trusted theScore brand,” said Aaron LaBerge, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Interactive, PENN Entertainment, in a news release.
“We’ve built a strong online gaming foothold in the Ontario market and are primed to deliver an even better casino experience with our proven stand-alone app. Our customer-friendly platform features more than 1,200 games, dozens of original titles, and intuitive gameplay that distinguishes our product and positions us for even greater success.”
One App to Rule Them All
The casino platform login has been synced with theScore Bet, which means no fussing for those customers who can gain access to theScore Casino using their current credentials. The stand-alone app is available on Android, iOS and PC formats.
A press release announced the launch, stating, “theScore Casino operates on the same cutting-edge proprietary technology platform as PENN’s online Hollywood Casino, which launched as a standalone product in the U.S. in December. The product was recently ranked by Eilers & Krejcik as the #2 overall iCasino product in the United States.
“theScore Casino, also available within theScore Bet app, offers a variety of online slots, table games, and live dealer content, including original titles from PENN Game Studios, the company’s in-house game development studio. theScore Casino also includes bespoke live dealer tables and exclusive games such as Blue Jays Blackjack, an original title leveraging theScore Bet’s partnership with the Toronto Blue Jays®.”
Penn’s Rocky Road
Penn Entertainment’s trials and travails in the mobile sports betting market have been well-documented. Traditionally, a land-based casino business that went all-in on the world of mobile sports betting, the decisions have been questionable at best, and the stock has taken a beating because of it.
After spending $650 million to acquire the Barstool Sports media empire that was used as the company’s first brand in the mobile sports betting industry, it quickly divested of that entity and spent $1.5 billion over 10 years to lease the letters ESPN to create ESPN BET.
Gaining traction even with the sports media giant’s logo, branding and name has been difficult, to say the least. The Penn team diving into uncharted waters can be traced back to 2020, when it purchased a 36% stake in Barstool and then purchased theScore in 2021 for $2 billion.
According to John Levy, founder of theScore and theScore Bet, Penn disregarded theScore’s tribal knowledge and immediately charted its own course.
“I just think you had to give more trust to the people who brought you to the party, which was us,” Levy said at the NEXT Summit gaming conference. “There was a bit of – we bought it and we’ll take it from here, thank you very much. When you’re as involved in the business as we always were and you can see where it was going and when things you might have been doing were happening differently – it was very hard, very frustrating.”
