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The early termination of ESPN Bet's 10 year $1.5 billion deal with Penn Interactive was bound to happen. It's just that few expected this to happen so soon.
A primary catalyst for ESPN's decision, announced Thursday morning, was most certainly a gambling scandal in the NBA that broke one week earlier.
KO Group Holdings President Mark Shapiro previously served as EVP of programming for ESPN. He offered his assessment of the decision.
“I just hope that this means we will not have to endure sports betting conversation infiltrating ESPN’s programming in the way it has, especially this football season,” said Shapiro. “It’s just bad programming. Of course, young sports fans are betting. But they are not tuning in from an appointment perspective to see non-stop conversation on every game with props and parlays and over-unders. It’s just not the case. In fact, it’s a total turnoff.”
The scandal just offered an easy excuse to back out. ESPN Bet has not even come remotely close to DraftKings or FanDuel's revenue streams, despite the advantage of having the ESPN name and all its resources behind the app.
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Top News Headlines (November 7, 2025)
(Gambling Crime) - Former NBA Player Damon Jones Pleads Not Guilty in Federal Gambling Cases - The indictment alleged that Jones encouraged a criminal partner to make a "big bet on Milwaukee" before the Bucks played a game on Feb. 9, 2023, against the Los Angeles Lakers. The indictment alleges that Lebron James was alated to sit out that game, information not known to the general public. He is among several people charged, along with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, in the sports betting case. (read more from Gambling911.com)
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(Gambling Scandal) - NBA Staff Members Meet Congressional Staffers to Discuss Gambling Scandals, AP Sources Say - This was billed as a a "fact-finding session" to discuss the league's relationship with sportsbooks and gambling scandals, particularly those involving recent indictments. The meeting with members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce addressed the league's gambling policies and measures to prevent the misuse of non-public information.
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(Gambling News) - ESPN Bet to Shut Down, Rebrand as theScore -ESPN’s partner Penn will rebrand the online sportsbook as theScore Bet, per news breaking Thursday morning. The app had previously been braded as Barstool Sports. The change will be effective December 1, 2025.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
