Former ESPN executive Nate Ravitz joins theScore

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The Backstory

Why this hire lands now

Penn Entertainment’s decision to bring former ESPN digital chief Nate Ravitz into theScore comes at an inflection point for the company’s media-and-betting strategy. Ravitz, a 17-year ESPN veteran who most recently led digital content and audience expansion, arrives just as Penn retires the ESPN Bet brand in the United States and folds its sportsbook back under theScore. The move signals a pivot from renting reach through a media partner to owning the full stack of brand, tech and audience, and it puts a seasoned operator of large-scale sports platforms in charge of stitching those pieces together.

That context matters. Penn spent the better part of two years trying to convert ESPN’s massive footprint into sportsbook share, building deeper product ties between betting and fantasy. An earlier attempt to fuse betting with ESPN Fantasy created single sign-on experiences and prop-bet journeys from roster pages, aiming to lower friction for casual fans. But product bridges and brand familiarity did not translate to durable gains against the market’s entrenched leaders. Bringing Ravitz to theScore is Penn’s bid to control the pipes and the programming in one place, then grow engagement and monetization inside an owned environment rather than across a partner’s ecosystem.

The hire also underscores where Penn sees leverage. theScore’s media app commands millions of monthly actives across the U.S. and Canada, and social audiences that can be pointed toward betting without licensing another company’s name. Ravitz has stewarded premium, fantasy and mobile products before. The remit now is to increase time spent, improve conversion into betting and iCasino where legal, and do it with lower external marketing costs than the ESPN era demanded.

From ESPN Bet to theScore Bet

The leadership shuffle follows Penn’s choice to reset its U.S. sportsbook identity. The company terminated its online sports betting pact with ESPN, ending a 10-year exclusivity agreement less than two years in. On its earnings call, Penn framed the split as a mutual decision to act in each party’s best interests after ESPN Bet fell short of podium status. The operator emphasized that it retains the customer database amassed under the ESPN banner and would pull back significantly on mass-market promotional spend while redeploying dollars to higher-return segments, especially Canada and U.S. iCasino hybrid states.

Rebranding was only the first step. Penn quickly pushed the new identity live, and theScore Bet went live in 21 U.S. jurisdictions, integrating sportsbook access with theScore’s media app. The company also paid to accelerate the transition, concluding remaining obligations to ESPN and earmarking funds to support the switch. ESPN, for its part, aligned with DraftKings as its official odds provider, ensuring betting data and integrations remain a fixture across ESPN surfaces, just without Penn’s operational tie-in.

For Penn, the stakes of the rebrand are straightforward: own the brand, own the tech, own the data, then tune the marketing mix for efficiency and cross-sell to regional casinos. The omni-channel promise—acquire younger digital customers and introduce them to profitable land-based experiences—still holds. The difference now is Penn wants to forecast and execute without a media partner’s overlay, and without paying for someone else’s logo to do it.

Execution risk and market math

Industry operators and marketers have been blunt about how hard it is to dent the DraftKings-FanDuel duopoly. In a postmortem on the breakup, analysts argued the breakup was inevitable absent a differentiated product that could pull users from incumbents with superior experience and retention. Customer acquisition costs remain high, lifetime values uncertain, and the top two continue to spend to defend share. Media clout alone was never going to be enough, the argument goes, without a “head-turner” product or pricing edge.

Penn’s management has echoed a complementary point from a different angle: the need to concentrate resources where returns justify the spend. The company said its marketing outlays will fall and shift toward Canada and select U.S. markets where iCasino economics can subsidize or amplify sportsbook engagement. That focus increases the pressure on product to carry more of the growth burden, which is where theScore’s media-betting integration and Ravitz’s digital track record come into play.

There is also a new competitive wrinkle. Leadership has called prediction markets a rising threat, arguing operators must work with regulators and lawmakers to level the playing field with consistent standards and consumer protections. If prediction platforms continue to attract sports fans with low-friction, pseudo-betting experiences, conversion and retention become tougher for licensed books unless they can match ease of use and creativity inside the regulatory guardrails.

Product rebuild across states and channels

Post-ESPN, Penn is moving quickly to stitch together a single, recognizable customer journey. With theScore Bet active in 21 jurisdictions, the company is leaning on in-app pathways from scores and news into props, parlays and promotions, while layering in access to Hollywood Casino in states where iCasino is legal. That design mirrors the Ontario blueprint, where theScore’s media and sportsbook have run as a combined funnel since launch.

The pivot is also a tacit acknowledgment of what did and did not work under ESPN Bet. Linking fantasy to betting reduced friction for some users, as the fantasy integration showed, but product parity is table stakes, not a differentiator. The rebuild challenge is to deliver speed, breadth of markets, intuitive bet-building and personalized offers at or above the best-in-class bar—then give casual users reasons to return on non-game days. Ravitz’s mandate spans media, advertising and growth, which suggests Penn will press its owned channels to drive habit and cut paid acquisition.

If Penn can make theScore’s editorial voice, social reach and sportsbook feel like one experience, cross-sell into retail casinos could benefit. The company has said younger digital customers have been successfully introduced to regional properties. A cleaner, unified brand should ease those journeys, from app to on-property rewards, without the confusion of multiple banners.

Regulatory scrutiny in a key market

While Penn touts Canada as a growth focus, theScore’s home market also illustrates the compliance bar the company must clear as it scales. Ontario’s regulator fined theScore CA$105,000 for player protection failures after finding the operator did not intervene quickly enough with a high-spending customer who showed multiple risk flags. The decision emphasized proactive monitoring, due diligence and trained staff responses as core requirements in the province’s framework.

The fine is not material to Penn’s finances, but it is strategically salient. The company has said it will redeploy marketing to Canada to grow share profitably. That plan depends on flawless execution across responsible gaming, know-your-customer processes and VIP management. Any lapses can slow product momentum, divert resources and complicate the narrative as Penn pitches regulators, investors and customers on the benefits of its owned, integrated model.

The upshot: theScore’s brand equity in Ontario is an asset, but it carries oversight that will test the operational discipline Penn wants to project as it resets in the U.S. Strong compliance performance will be as important as new features in sustaining growth.

Taken together, Penn’s reset is a bet on control—of brand, product, data and cost. Adding Ravitz puts a veteran of scaled sports media at the helm of that effort. The playbook now is to convert engaged fans inside theScore’s walls, sharpen the product in 21 states and Canada, and prove that an owned ecosystem can do what a licensed logo could not: acquire efficiently, retain consistently and grow on Penn’s terms.