TheScore Inc.

Score Media and Gaming Inc. is a digital media company based in Toronto, Canada, often referred to as theScore. It was founded in 2012 by John S. Levy, the company's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. The company owns and operates digital sports media and sports betting products which deliver sports scores, data, news, and sportsbook offerings via emerging and established platforms. The company also previously owned The Score Television Network, which was acquired by Rogers Communications in October 2012 and is today known as Sportsnet 360. The transaction did not include theScore's digital media assets, including its mobile apps and websites.

The company was spun-out from Score Media immediately prior to Rogers' acquisition. As a result of the transaction, former shareholders of Score Media received one share of the new company for each share held in Score Media, meaning that Score Media founder John Levy and family are the largest single voting shareholders in the company, as was the case with Score Media, though Rogers received additional shares yielding an ownership stake of 11.8%. Rogers subsequently sold its shares in theScore in June 2014.

As of Q1 F2020 (Aug-Nov 2019), theScore's mobile sports media application was used by an average of 4.3 million monthly active users worldwide, 62% of which were in the United States, 27% in Canada and 11% in other international markets. The company is publicly traded and was listed on the TSX Venture Exchange until September 2020 when it was promoted to the Toronto Stock Exchange. Since March 2021, The Score is listed on Nasdaq, under the SCR ticker.

In August 2021, Penn National Gaming agreed to acquire Score Media and Gaming Inc. for $2 billion in cash and stocks. The deal completed in October 2021 and the company was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

History

Sportscope

Launched in 1994 as Sportscope, theScore originally began as a network focusing on providing sports scores, airing in seven Canadian provinces. Sportscope's programming consisted solely of an alphanumeric text rotation of sports scores, news, and sports betting information, which aired alongside local and national advertising slides. As it did not include any video content, it did not require a CRTC licence.

Headline Sports

Sportscope was granted an English-language specialty channel licence by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on September 4, 1996, provisionally titled "Sportscope Plus". The channel was launched in May 1997 as 'Headline Sports' and was a national 24-hour anchor-at-desk sports information service. Advertising was also introduced, something that did not exist during the Sportscope era. The oldies music was replaced by modern stock music during text rotation of sports scores and news. The channel also contained a constantly updated ticker at the bottom of the screen, providing sports news and scores, as it still does today, per its CRTC licence requirements. There were plans to air different tickers in each region of the country and additional streams of alphanumeric data (perhaps via an alternate channel) when the channel was launched, but those plans were abandoned.

theScore

In March 2000, Headline Sports' licence was amended by the CRTC to allow live sports programming, under the conditions that the channel display the ticker and that breaks away from live coverage occur at least once every 15 minutes to present video highlights. As a result of this – the channel was rebranded as 'theScore Television Network' that year. On June 6, 2006, theScore revamped its ticker, alongside the launch of a new HD channel. On September 20, 2011, Score Media announced that it would put theScore Television Network up for sale.

Purchase by Rogers

In August 2012, Rogers Communications, owners of the competing network Sportsnet, acquired theScore's parent company with Score Media retaining all of the company's digital assets.

Products

theScore

‘theScore’ media app was launched in 2007 as the company's first venture into the mobile app industry. It has since become one of the most popular multi-sport news apps in North America with approximately 4-5 million active users. Available on iOS and Android, the app delivers sports content through a combination of real-time news, scores, stats, and videos for all major leagues, including the National Football League, NCAA Football and Basketball, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, PGA Golf, NASCAR Racing, Major League Soccer, major European soccer leagues, a