Penn National Gaming has acquired Score Media and Gaming for $2 billion in cash and stock, according to a company press release.
The company says that this acquisition should lead to significant savings in third-party platform costs and allow Penn National to broaden its product offerings.
"We are thrilled to be acquiring the Score, which is the number one sports app in Canada and the third most popular sports app in all of North America," Jay Snowden, president and chief executive officer of Penn National said in the release. "The Score’s unique media platform and modern, state-of-the art technology is a powerful complement to the reach of Barstool Sports and its popular personalities and content."
Last year, Penn National purchased Barstool Sports for $450 million, according to CNBC.
The Score shareholders will receive $17 in cash and 0.2398 shares of Penn National common stock for each Score share, which implies a total purchase consideration of $34 per Score share based on Penn National’s 5-day volume weighted average trading price as of July 30, according to the release.
“We are now uniquely positioned to seamlessly serve our customers with the most powerful ecosystem of sports, gaming and media in North America, ultimately creating a community that doesn’t currently exist," Snowden said. "Users will enjoy a unique mobile sports betting and iCasino platform with highly customized bets and enhanced in-gaming wagering opportunities, along with highly engaging, personalized sports and entertainment content, and real time scores and stats. We believe this powerful new flywheel will result in best-in-class engagement and retention."
Boards of directors at both companies have approved the transaction and it is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, according to the release.
"Importantly, the transaction provides us with a path to full control of our own tech stack," Snowden said. "The Score has developed a state-of-the-art player account management system and is finalizing the development of an in-house managed-risk and trading-service platform. This should lead to significant savings in third-party platform costs and allow us to broaden our product offerings – providing the missing piece for operating at what we expect to be industry-leading margins. In addition to the synergies, we’ll be gaining access to the Score’s deep pool of product and engineering talent and data-driven user analytics which will help drive our customer acquisition, engagement, retention strategies and cash flows.”