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PENN Entertainment
Jay Snowden runs PENN Entertainment, which operates 43 casinos and racetracks across 20 states and owns the ESPN BET sportsbook.
PENN Entertainment
PENN Entertainment was founded in 1982 as a racetrack operator and has since transformed through serial acquisitions into one of North America's largest regional gaming companies. The firm, previously known as Penn National Gaming, went public in 1994 and now owns a portfolio of 43 properties under brands including Hollywood Casino, Ameristar, and L'Auberge. PENN's strategy shifted dramatically with its 2020 acquisition of a 36% stake in Barstool Sports, followed by the full buyout in early 2023, in a bid to vertically integrate sports media and online betting. That experiment ended in August 2023 when PENN sold Barstool back to founder Dave Portnoy and simultaneously launched a $1.5 billion, 10-year licensing deal with ESPN to create ESPN BET. The company's deployment covers physical casinos, iGaming platforms, and an interactive division built around theScore and ESPN BET. Confirmed operational markets span states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Louisiana. PENN employed over 20,000 people at year-end 2023 and generates revenue across four segments: Northeast, South, West, and Midwest. The August 2023 ESPN BET launch marked the largest operational event of the last year, reorienting the entire interactive strategy after the Barstool divestiture. The company maintains a corporate headquarters in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, and an interactive technology hub in Toronto, Canada, which houses theScore's product and engineering teams. PENN's structural differentiator is the ESPN licensing relationship — no other US casino operator has embedded its sportsbook inside a media brand that reaches over 200 million fans monthly. This hybrid model of regional real estate cash flows funding a media-integrated digital betting unit creates a unique exposure among publicly traded gaming REITs and operators.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
1982
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Wyomissing
Corporate office
Wyomissing, PA, United States
Principals
Jay Snowden
CEO & President
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is the ESPN BET licensing deal and why does it matter for PENN?
In August 2023, PENN launched ESPN BET under a 10-year, $1.5 billion licensing deal with ESPN, giving the sportsbook exclusive rights to the ESPN brand for all US online sports betting. In exchange, ESPN received $150 million in annual cash consideration and warrants to purchase approximately 31.8 million shares of PENN common stock. The deal replaced PENN's Barstool Sportsbook and embedded PENN's interactive division inside ESPN's digital ecosystem, which reaches over 200 million monthly users.
How does PENN make money beyond sports betting?
The majority of PENN's revenue still comes from its 43 physical casino and racetrack properties across 20 states. This includes slot machines, table games, hotel rooms, food and beverage, and live racing operations. Penn National Gaming was built over decades through acquiring distressed regional casino properties and integrating them into a central management platform, a model that continues to provide the cash flow underlying the interactive division's growth bets.
What happened to PENN's Barstool Sports investment?
PENN acquired a 36% stake in Barstool Sports in 2020 for $163 million and bought the remainder in February 2023 for roughly $388 million — only to sell the entire property back to founder Dave Portnoy in August 2023 for a nominal $1 plus non-compete provisions. The divestiture coincided with regulatory headwinds and brand controversies that made Barstool incompatible with PENN's new ESPN partnership. PENN wrote down the investment and launched ESPN BET the same day.
What is PENN's relationship with theScore?
PENN acquired theScore, a Canadian sports media and betting platform, in October 2021 for approximately $2 billion in cash and stock. TheScore's Toronto-based technology team now powers both theScore Bet in Ontario and the ESPN BET platform across the US. The acquisition gave PENN a proprietary technology stack — an alternative to outsourcing to third-party providers — and remains the backbone of its interactive division's product development.
Who runs investment decisions at PENN?
Jay Snowden, CEO and President since 2020, oversees all major strategic initiatives and capital allocation decisions, including the ESPN deal and the Barstool divestiture. Snowden joined the company in 2011 and previously served as COO, playing a central role in the acquisition of Pinnacle Entertainment in 2018. The board and executive team determine capital expenditures, M&A, and the interactive division's licensing and market-access strategy.
Why did PENN rebrand from Penn National Gaming?
The company changed its name to PENN Entertainment in August 2022 to reflect its evolution from a pure racetrack and casino operator into an integrated entertainment company spanning land-based gaming, digital sports betting, and media partnerships. The rebrand preceded the ESPN deal by exactly one year and signaled management's intent to diversify beyond its physical casino roots into sports media and interactive entertainment.
Does PENN operate as a REIT or an operating company?
PENN is an operating company, not a REIT, although its real estate holdings were historically split into a separate publicly traded REIT, Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI), in 2013. PENN sold roughly half its properties to GLPI in a spin-off designed to unlock real estate value, and it now leases many of its casino sites from GLPI under a master lease agreement. This structure separates real estate ownership from gaming operations, making PENN a lighter-asset operator.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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