PENN Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden has suggested the upcoming NFL season will be an “arms race” between online sports betting operators and prediction markets when it comes to customer acquisition.
Speaking on the operator’s Q2 earnings call, Snowden attested the firm was braced for an “aggressive” market as several firms spend heavily on marketing and advertising.
Snowden was asked about comments from former Flutter CEO Peter Jackson, who claimed the operator would be heavily reinvesting into its FanDuel product ahead of the football season starting in September.
When asked whether PENN would follow a similar strategy, Snowden said the firm wouldn’t be pivoting from its current course.
PENN has ramped up focus on its online casino efforts since ditching ESPN Bet last December, instead focusing on theScore Bet and the standalone Hollywood Casino app.
Snowden noted: “[FanDuel’s investment plans] hasn’t changed in terms of our approach because we anticipated football season being quite the arms race this year. You’re going to have prediction markets that are targeting customers for the first football season ever, given the timeline of when they actually went live was close to the Super Bowl.
“We already assumed it was going to be a very aggressive, irrational marketing spend on advertising and new customer acquisition this football season. I think this just speaks to it being aggressive, not only from a prediction market standpoint but maybe some of the incumbent OSB digital-only players as well.
“It doesn’t change the way we’re thinking about it – it is a very competitive marketplace out there right now.”
The firm is yet to enter the prediction markets space, while several of its competitors including DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics have all released a prediction markets offering within the last year.
PENN reported revenue of $349.4m for the second quarter of 2026 and an adjusted EBITDAR loss of $9.5m for its online arm.
The operator’s theScore Bet brand is live in 20 US states, in addition to Canadian provinces Ontario and the newly regulated Alberta market.
Snowden remarked on PENN’s performance in Alberta so far, saying: “While still early, we are encouraged by our Alberta user and handle volumes on a per capita basis and believe our exclusive strategic partnership in Canada with the Toronto Blue Jays will complement the strength of theScore bet brand there.
“Our expected investment in Alberta remains approximately $20m for the year, and our 2026 interactive segment adjusted EBITDA guidance is unchanged at a loss of $20m.”
In terms of online casino, PENN’s standalone Hollywood iCasino app is live in four US jurisdictions in addition to Alberta and Ontario.
Group chief technology officer Aaron LaBerge said casino growth would be a priority for the company in the near future.
He added: “We’re going to continue to focus on growing casino. Casino in general has very attractive customer acquisition costs, so we’re exploiting that currently. On the sportsbook side, we’re planning to grow through the end of the year.
“We rebranded from ESPN Bet to theScore Bet in December. As that audience normalises, what we’ve realised is theScore brand, while still small and growing in the US, is very loyal and so we’re taking care of those users.
“We saw a lot of engagement and reactivation through the World Cup. We’re keeping those people engaged through football, so we feel good there. Cross-sells should continue as the sportsbook business grows as well.”
The post PENN Entertainment braced for NFL customer acquisition “arms race”, says CEO first appeared on EGR Intel.
Jay Snowden says the operator was anticipating an “aggressive” and “irrational” market for customer acquisition due to prediction market platforms competing for online sports betting consumers
The post PENN Entertainment braced for NFL customer acquisition “arms race”, says CEO first appeared on EGR Intel.