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Thursday marked Penn Entertainment’s first full quarterly earnings report after moving on from ESPN Bet to theScore Bet brand in the US late last year.

The market liked what it heard — both on the retail and online businesses — as Penn stock was up 15% intraday.

Penn is primarily a regional retail online casino operator that also has an online gambling business. The digital business has come under scrutiny after deploying both Barstool Sportsbook and ESPN Bet at a lot of cost and poor results, with all eyes now on the new strategy and brand.

Let’s start with the nuts and bolts of the Q1 report, per Penn’s press release and accompanying materials (emphasis added by me):

  • Jay Snowden, Chief Executive Officer and President, said: “We are pleased to report another solid quarter. Retail Segment Adjusted EBITDAR grew year-over-year and stable trends are carrying into April. In our Interactive segment, continued online casino growth combined with positive trends in Ontario are driving momentum as we prepare for the anticipated July 13 launch of regulated iCasino and online sports betting in Alberta.

    • Importantly, we are executing on the plan we outlined last quarter, driving Retail and Interactive growth, optimizing corporate overhead, making disciplined capital investments, and continuing to delever. …

  • Retail business was up 3% over Q1 2025:

  • Meanwhile, online revenue was up 6.5% over last year, largely on the strength of online casino, but also in its sports betting business.

    • We know March of 2025 was a bad month for US sports betting revenue and hold, so I wouldn’t read too much into that revenue growth. But the big part here is the EBITDA improvement for Q1 from -$89M to -$11M. Here’s Snowden again in the presser:

      • “Our Interactive segment delivered a meaningful Adjusted EBITDA improvement year-over-year, which marks the first full quarter under our realigned digital strategy. iCasino revenue growth of approximately 15% year-over-year was driven by the continued momentum of standalone iCasino, which notably achieved record quarterly revenue in the first quarter as well as record monthly revenue in March. The trends we are seeing provide us with confidence in the trajectory of the business and upcoming launch in Alberta.”

    • More on online casino/interactive from the presentation:

The bottom line: Penn dramatically cut spending after exiting ESPN, while online casino continues to grow.

It’s a bit early to tell how the online sports betting component of all this will go. But clearly spending lots of capital just to be the No. 6 or 7 sports betting operator in the United States was not working out.

For Q1 so far (not all states have reported March yet), I have theScore Bet at about 2.3% of nationwide handle and 1.9% of revenue. In Q1 of last year, its share of handle was at almost 3.4%, but share of revenue was only 2.6%.

Given that costs are way down — and the path to online sports betting growth was hard to discern with ESPN’s brand — you would take this trade almost every time.

Now, theScore Bet has to find the new floor, of course; if it continues to lose ground, that would not be a great outcome. But it would still be better than continuing to sink money into a partnership with ESPN that was shrinking.

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  • Oklahoma Senate Shuts Down Revived Tribal Sports Betting Push (Legal Sports Report): “Despite some optimism earlier this week, a late session push to legalize Oklahoma sports betting appears to have come up short Wednesday. The Oklahoma Senate voted against House Bill 1047, 21-27. Even if the Senate advanced the Oklahoma sports betting bill to Gov. Kevin Stitt, the governor was likely to veto the bill.

    • “Governor Stitt has been clear that he will only support a free market approach to sports betting in Oklahoma,” Stitt said in a statement according to The Oklahoman. “No legislation has reached his desk yet, so we won’t comment on specifics of pending legislation. The Governor is not interested in expanding Democrat Gov. Brad Henry’s bad gaming compact that lacks transparency and fair market rates.”

    • ⚡Welp, the prospects for legal online sports betting in the state went from zero to good to zero in the space of a few days. One of the few chances for legalization this year is off the board.

  • Online Sports Betting Trends Steady In Q1 But Long-Term Outlook Uncertain (Legal Sports Report): “Online sports betting companies are expected to post a largely in-line Q1, but their results increasingly reflect a competitive landscape that’s becoming harder for investors to ignore. Truist Securities cut price targets on online sports betting market leaders DraftKings and FanDuel parent Flutter, citing a more cautious view tied to prediction market uncertainty, softer handle and a promotional environment expected to ramp back up this summer.”

  • Sportradar Stock Falls on Research Alleging Rogue Customers (WSJ): “Sports data company Sportradar came under attack from short sellers Callisto Research and Muddy Waters on Wednesday, sending its stock down 20%. The Nasdaq-listed company was accused by Callisto of providing its services to illegal and unlicensed gambling operators. Callisto estimated that around one-third of Sportradar’s revenue could be tied up with illicit platforms. …”

    • “A Sportradar spokesperson said the company works exclusively with licensed operators, and follows strict compliance and due diligence standards. ‘We stand by our independently audited financial statements, risk disclosures, and information provided to investors and regulators,’ the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.”

  • Proposed Colorado Sports Betting Prop Ban Dropped (Sports Betting Dime): “A Colorado sports betting bill designed to increase customer protections has dropped a controversial prop betting ban, but still includes several safeguards for sports betting users in the state. Sen. Matt Ball’s (D-31) bill, SB 26-131, was amended this week to strike a measure that would have prohibited all prop bets in the state. The legislation still prohibits certain account deposit methods, eliminates push notifications or text message to solicit bets, and limits the number of times users can deposit into their accounts.”

  • My latest roundup on prediction markets, including the news yesterday that Kalshi fined and suspended three Congressional candidates for trading on themselves:

    Five Questions After Kalshi Fined Congressional Candidates For Betting On Themselves

    This newsletter was sent to 3,632 subscribers who want to keep up with developments in the prediction market industry…

    Read more

    8 hours ago · 8 likes · Dustin Gouker

  • France Probes Weather Data Tampering After Surge in Polymarket Bets (Bloomberg): “France’s forecasting office flagged suspected tampering with weather sensors at the country’s largest airport and referred the case to police, after detecting unusual readings alongside heavy betting on a popular prediction market.”

    • “Automated temperature readings taken at Meteo France’s weather station at Charles de Gaulle International Airport spiked 4C and 5C unexpectedly in the evenings of April 6 and April 15, respectively, reaching the highest temperature recorded at the site on those days, data from the installation show.”

    • “Readings from the site are important for the safe operation of the airport. They are also used to settle contracts for daily high temperatures on Polymarket, according to information on the website where traders place bets on real-world outcomes.”

    • 😬 Sometimes you couldn’t even make up some of the news we get about prediction markets. We’ll all look back on this period of time fondly, I am sure.

  • Study: You Are Almost Certainly Not Making Money At Polymarket (InGame): “The top 1% of traders on Polymarket have captured 84% of all the gains on the platform, and 70.8% of users are in the red overall. That’s the summary of a new academic paper taking a hard look at the world’s largest prediction market.”

    • “The paper comes from four researchers: Pat Akey of ESSEC Business School in France, Vincent Grégoire of HEC Montréal, and Nicolas Harvie and Charles Martineau of the University of Toronto. What they did is the kind of thing you can only do with a blockchain-based platform: They pulled every single trade. Using Polymarket data from November 2022 through October 2025, they looked at 1.4 million users, 70 million trades, and more than $20 billion in volume.”

Sponsor’s message: In episode 6 of The Comeback, Craig Carton talks with Sam who began his gambling during the early 2000’s poker boom. He saw his problems begin with online sports betting, though, betting on illegal offshore sportsbooks while living in California.

  • Caesars Entertainment Opens In-Person Caesars Sportsbook at Northfield Park Racino in Ohio (press release): “Caesars Entertainment, Inc. today announced the opening of a new in-person Caesars Sportsbook located inside Northfield Park Racino near Cleveland through a new partnership with Clairvest Group Inc. As an official sports betting partner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the launch expands Caesars’ presence in the Buckeye State and is an ideal complement to the Caesars Sportsbook mobile app.

    • Designed for today’s sports fan, Caesars Sportsbook at Northfield Park Racino delivers a premium in-person sports wagering and viewing experience powered by Caesars’ best-in-class technology. The sportsbook features an expansive LED video wall, five staffed betting windows and a fleet of Caesars Sportsbook self-service betting kiosks, available for 24/7 wagering. Guests can access a diverse menu of sports wagering markets with convenient mobile app account deposits and withdrawals and earn Caesars Rewards® with every wager.

    • “Northfield Park Racino gives us a strong new venue to connect with Northeast Ohio sports fans in a high-traffic entertainment destination,” said Eric Hession, President of Caesars Digital. “Its location just outside Cleveland, a market defined by some of the most passionate sports fans in the country, pairs our industry-leading technology with a lively atmosphere that enhances how fans watch and wager on sports throughout the year.”

  • Q1 2026: Churchill Downs reports record quarterly revenue (Next.io): “Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) reported record first-quarter revenue and earnings growth in Q1 2026, with gains anchored in its racing and wagering operations.”

    • Press release:

      • First quarter 2026 financial results, as compared to the prior year quarter:

        • Record net revenue of $663 million, up $20 million or 3%

        • Net income attributable to CDI of $83 million, up $6 million or 8%

        • Record Adjusted EBITDA of $257 million, up $12 million or 5%

      • On January 12, 2026, CDI announced plans to invest $180-$200 million in Rockingham Grand Casino in Salem, New Hampshire, with a planned mid-2027 opening.

      • On February 25, 2026, CDI opened Marshall Yards Racing & Gaming in Southwestern Kentucky.

      • On April 21, 2026, CDI announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the intellectual property, including all trademarks and associated rights, of the Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes from 1/ST Maryland LLC for a purchase price of $85 million.

  • Hires and Higher-Ups: IGT, Crypto.com, IC360 and more (SBC Americas): “IGT added a new member to its leadership team by appointing Mark Wadley as the company’s president of land-based gaming. He joins IGT after serving as an executive at Aristocrat. At Aristocrat, Wadley served as chief marketing officer for nearly five years.”

  • Kirkland casino company closes SeaTac location, lays off 65 employees (MyNorthwest): “Approximately 65 employees have been laid off by Maverick Gaming, a Kirkland-based casino company, as it shuttered its Silver Dollar SeaTac Casino. The layoffs are scheduled to take effect on June 30 and span a wide range of positions, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed Tuesday.”

I curate a reverse job board for the gambling industry. The goal of this resource: to match job seekers with prospective employers.

  • You can peruse the reverse job board here

  • Sign up to be included as looking for work here

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