theScore Bet Review: Post-ESPN Bet App, Offer and Ratings
theScore Bet review: the ESPN Bet replacement is a Canadian-built app with a mixed pre-rebrand record
PENN moved ESPN Bet customers to theScore Bet on December 1, 2025. We looked at what changed, what did not, the $1,000 Bet Reset offer, and the app's ratings.
Our score
6.2/10Rated 6.2 out of 10
Verdict
theScore Bet is ESPN Bet under a new name, with the same accounts, funds and logins, now run by PENN through its Score Media and Gaming arm. Store ratings are strong at roughly 4.7 on iOS, but a summer 2025 survey of nine industry reviewers put the old app at 2.53 out of 5, and we found no independent test showing the rebrand fixed it. Open it for the offer, not the media integration.
Best for
Existing ESPN Bet users and bettors who follow theScore's news app
Existing ESPN Bet accounts, funds and logins moved across at the December 1, 2025 switch
Now available in 21 US states, including Missouri from the launch date
Sign-up offer is a Bet Reset up to $1,000 returned as bonus bets if the first bet loses
iOS rating of about 4.7 to 4.8 across more than 200,000 ratings
What held it back
A summer 2025 panel of nine reviewers scored the old ESPN Bet app 2.53 out of 5
Former ESPN Bet users are not eligible for the Bet Reset, according to RotoWire's terms
Bet Reset refunds a losing first bet as bonus bets, not cash
Google Play rating is lower, around 4.2, and we found no post-rebrand independent test
On December 1, 2025 the ESPN Bet sportsbook stopped existing in the United States, and the same accounts reappeared as theScore Bet. A rename is not an improvement, so our first question is what actually changed. The honest answer is the owner's branding and little else.
RotoWire's September 2026 roundup lists theScore Bet among newer sportsbook apps.
What the switch was
PENN Entertainment licensed the ESPN name for its sportsbook, and in November 2025 the two sides agreed to end that deal. Wikipedia's timeline then gives the rest: customers moved to theScore Bet on December 1, 2025, and the service launched in Missouri the same day, taking it to 21 states. PENN's chief executive said the savings would be reinvested mostly in Canadian operations.
That detail matters. theScore Bet is not new. It launched in New Jersey in September 2019, and PENN bought the parent, Score Media and Gaming, for $2 billion in cash and stock after the August 2021 agreement. The Canadian brand reached Ontario in April 2022, and the US sportsbook now carries the same name.
For existing users, RotoWire reports that funds and login details carry over once you sign in. If you had a balance at ESPN Bet, check that it appears before you do anything else.
Wikipedia's history of the sportsbook, from its 2019 launch to the PENN deal.
The media-app angle
The pitch is integration with theScore, a sports news and scores app. Its front page, captured below, is a busy feed of headlines and final scores, which is the audience PENN is trying to turn into bettors. We see the logic, but a news feed does not change the price on a line. Judge the sportsbook on its odds, props and limits, and treat the media tie-in as a free extra.
The theScore media app is the front door PENN wants bettors to walk through.
Ratings: strong in the store, weak with the experts
The store figures are good. RotoWire lists about 4.7 on the Apple store and 4.2 on Google Play, and the US listing shows 4.8. AppGoblin's analytics count 224,000 ratings for the iOS app.
Experts were colder before the rebrand. In RotoWire's summer 2025 survey of nine industry reviewers, ESPN Bet averaged 2.53 out of 5 and ranked eighth among US sportsbooks. Functionality was its best category and app features its worst. RotoWire is an affiliate publisher, so we read its promo pages with that in mind, but the survey figure is the only structured expert score we found. We found no independent test of the post-rebrand app, so we do not assume it improved.
AppGoblin shows the app's rating counts and ad network details.
The offer, read closely
The headline is a Bet Reset of up to $1,000. If your first bet loses, you get the stake back, up to the cap, and it comes as bonus bets and not cash. Bonus bets typically return only the profit when they win, so a $100 reset bet at +200 returns $200, not $300. RotoWire's terms say former ESPN Bet users are not eligible, which means the offer is for newcomers only.
Compare that with a plain deposit match. A match requires you to lose or roll over money; a reset only helps if the first bet loses. Over many accounts the expected value is modest, so we would open this for the offer and nothing more.
One more caution on the headline number. A refund offer sounds generous because the cap is large, yet the cap is the most you can get back, not what you are likely to get. Most players stake far less than $1,000 on a first bet, so the real value of the reset is closer to the size of your own first wager, paid in a form that is harder to cash out.
Where the name change leaves the state map
Twenty-one states sounds broad, yet it is a subset of the ESPN Bet footprint plus Missouri. RotoWire's list includes Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, DC. Check your state inside the app, since licences and offers differ by jurisdiction and change without notice.
Who should open it
Keep it if you already had an ESPN Bet account: nothing is lost and the funds moved. Open it as a new customer if you are collecting first-bet offers across several books and want one in your state.
Skip it as a main book if you shop prices. We have no evidence it prices better than its larger rivals, and the expert score argues for caution. It is also only live in 21 states.
All betting risks losing your stake, and this is not financial advice. If you need help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
