What’s Up With PENN, ESPN BET, and theScore Bet in Missouri?

• Missouri sports bettors can now register with their sports betting app of choice
• The Show-Me State today officially opened account registration and funding
• ESPN BET will shut down on Dec. 1, 2025, the same day the state is set to launch sports betting

Missouri is only two weeks out from launching its sports betting market and is already dealing with one major change.

The Show-Me State today opened its doors to users who wish to register accounts with their Missouri sports betting app of choice, as it readies itself for its Monday, Dec. 1 midnight launch. However, PENN Entertainment and ESPN BET Missouri recently announced the cessation of their 10-year sports betting partnership, with PENN officially rebranding its sports betting platform to theScore Bet and ESPN BET shuttering its doors on Dec. 1.

So, how can interested customers register accounts now for theScore Bet, which has yet to be rebranded from ESPN BET? It’s fairly simple.

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Consider It a Rebrand

Despite PENN and ESPN’s mutual agreement to end the ESPN BET experiment after just two years, PENN Entertainment announced it would still be moving forward with its Missouri sports betting plans.

The company received a temporary online sports betting license from the Missouri Gaming Commission and still plans to launch in the Show-Me State on Dec. 1, 2025. The company is using its Hollywood Casino and River City Casino locations in Missouri to enter the market.

PENN Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden revealed during the company’s Q3 earnings report that its sports betting platform would simply be rebranded to theScore Bet in every state where PENN holds a sports betting license. All ESPN BET users will see a seamless rebrand to theScore Bet, which will not require any new downloads or account registrations.

So, how can users register for theScore Bet right now in Missouri? Interesting users can register an account right now with ESPN BET, which will be rebranded to theScore Bet on Dec. 1, 2025.

A spokesperson for theScore Bet reported all funds and promos users receive for signing up an account will automatically transfer over to the new platform.

PENN Entertainment will retain its database of 2.9 million digital users acquired during the ESPN relationship. Snowden reported more than 300,000 new users registered with the company since the start of the NFL season.

ESPN BET Done in December

Under the terms of the original deal, both ESPN and PENN Entertainment had the right to terminate the agreement after its third year if specific market share performance thresholds were not met.

ESPN Bet struggled in the U.S., never reaching its goal of being a top-three platform. ESPN Bet consistently maintained a top-six spot and reported a market share of less than 5% in the U.S.

When the deal was announced in summer 2023, PENN Entertainment agreed to pay $1.5 billion to ESPN over the initial 10-year term and grant ESPN approximately $500 million of warrants to purchase 31.8 million PENN common shares. As part of the deal, PENN Entertainment included potential financial incentives for ESPN dependent on ESPN BET reaching performance thresholds for North American online sports betting market share.

“We are grateful for the exhaustive and collaborative efforts by our friends at ESPN and the PENN Interactive team to compete for a podium position in the highly competitive OSB space. Although we made significant progress in improving our product offering and building a cohesive ecosystem with ESPN, we were unable to establish ESPN Bet as a scale player,” Snowden said during the earnings report.

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Account Registration Officially Open

Account registration officially opened today at midnight. The Missouri Gaming Commission opened account registration and funding for its nine online sports betting licensees; DraftKings Missouri, Circa Missouri, FanDuel Missouri, Underdog Missouri, Fanatics Sportsbook Missouri, Caesars Sportsbook Missouri, theScore Bet Missouri, bet365 Missouri, and BetMGM Missouri.

Missouri sports betting is set to launch on Monday, Dec. 1 at midnight.