theScore Bet is now an official NFL partner in Canada. PENN Entertainment announced the multi-year agreement on 2 October, and the wording that matters is the designation itself: an official NFL Partner designation for sportsbook and iGaming. The casino half is the unusual part, because these deals are normally sportsbook only.
It covers PENN’s three Canadian brands, theScore Bet, theScore Casino and Hollywood Casino. And it is a genuinely Canadian story rather than an American one imported: theScore was built in Toronto, and it is the rare case of a Canadian sports media company sitting on the same side of a deal as the NFL.
What theScore actually gets
An official partner designation is a marketing and media arrangement. It is not a statement about prices, and it does not mean the NFL has an opinion on anyone’s odds. What changes hands here is the right to use the league’s name and imagery:
- NFL trademarks and intellectual property, including league logos and team marks
- NFL Kickoff branding and Super Bowl imagery
- Marketing, advertising, hospitality and fan engagement assets
- Shared media and promotional campaigns, with inventory exchanged between the two
- Custom fan experiences and a presence at league events
- Access to NFL Canada digital media and database marketing
Gavin Kemp, the general manager of NFL Canada, framed it around theScore’s existing reach with Canadian sports fans. Justin Hergianto, PENN Interactive’s vice-president of marketing, pointed to theScore Bet being live in Ontario and Alberta alongside theScore’s media audience. Both read as you would expect a launch release to read. The substance is in the rights list above and in the map below.
The part that actually affects you
theScore Bet is licensed in two provinces. Ontario and Alberta. That is the whole commercial footprint, and it means this announcement changes nothing for most Canadians, because sports betting in Canada is regulated province by province rather than nationally.
So if you are in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Regina, Montreal or anywhere in Atlantic Canada, an official NFL partnership has arrived at a sportsbook you cannot legally use. PlayNow, Mise-O-Jeu+ and Atlantic Lottery remain the only legal options in those provinces, and none of them is affected by this.
If you are in Ontario or Alberta, the practical effect is still modest. You will see more NFL branding, more league imagery in campaigns, and more NFL content inside theScore’s app around Kickoff, the Draft and the Super Bowl. The markets and the prices are a separate question, and this deal does not speak to them.
Why the NFL is doing this
Canada is the league’s most developed market outside the United States and it has no team, which makes it unusual: large, engaged, and reachable only through media and commercial partners. The NFL already runs a Canadian arm, and a steady group of Canadians on NFL rosters gives it a domestic story to tell each week.
Alberta’s market opening on 13 July 2026 also matters to the timing. Until this summer Ontario was the only province where a private operator could legally take a bet, which made a national partnership a near-impossibility. Two open provinces is still not a country, but it is twice as many as last season.
What it does not mean
Three things worth being clear about, because launch coverage tends to blur them. An official partnership is not a licence to operate: theScore Bet’s right to take bets comes from the AGCO in Ontario and the AGLC in Alberta, not from the NFL. It is not an exclusivity claim, and nothing in the announcement says otherwise. And it is not a signal about where to bet, which depends on price and product rather than on who holds a trademark licence.
Our own read on the sportsbook market in Canada sits on the NFL betting sites page, and the week-to-week model work is in the NFL power rankings.
19+ (18+ in AB/MB/QC) | Please play responsibly | Partnership details from PENN Entertainment’s announcement of 2 October 2026, accurate at the time of writing | ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 (ON). See your province’s helpline for resources elsewhere.