Penn National Gaming has today announced plans to acquire Score Media and Gaming in an attempt to create North America’s leading sports betting and gaming company. The deal will be worth approximately $2bn and highlights Penn National's intentions to expand into new verticals.
The acquisition will see Penn National add theScore’s full betting and media platform into its existing ecosystem, and establishes the company’s plans to expand into the burgeoning sports betting market in Canada.
“This deal brings together two companies that share a vision for how media and gaming intersect, and we could not be more excited to join the Penn National family,” said John Levy, CEO of theScore. “I’m proud of theScore team and all of our accomplishments, and believe the time is right to take the next step and align with a company in Penn National with the resources and scale to accelerate our business. With Penn’s support, we will continue to invest in building our Canadian operations, growing our footprint and expanding our workforce.”
The terms of the acquisition will see theScore shareholders receive $17 in cash and 0.2398 shares of Penn National common stock for every theScore share. Upon completion of the transaction, current Penn National and theScore shareholders will hold approximately 93% and 7%, respectively, of the company’s shares.
“We are thrilled to be acquiring theScore, which is the number one sports app in Canada and the third most popular sports app in all of North America,” added Jay Snowden, president and CEO of Penn National. “theScore’s unique media platform and modern, state-of-the art technology is a powerful complement to the reach of Barstool Sports and its popular personalities and content. We are now uniquely positioned to seamlessly serve our customers with the most powerful ecosystem of sports, gaming and media in North America, ultimately creating a community that doesn’t currently exist.”
TheScore is a Canada-based sports betting platform that, through its app, allows players to wager on sporting events in New Jersey, Colorado, Indiana and Iowa.
