The newly rebranded Penn Entertainment has announced that it plans to purchase the remaining shares of Barstool Sports Inc.

On August 17, Penn said it has exercised its “call rights” to purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Barstool Sports to bring its ownership of the brand to 100 per cent.

The acquisition of the remaining shares is expected to be completed in February, after which Barstool will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Penn Entertainment.

Penn Entertainment, then Penn National Gaming, purchased 36 per cent of Barstool Sports common stock in February 2020 for US$161.2 million. It then paid another US$62 million to push its ownership up to 50 per cent. Bloomberg reports that Penn will pay US$387 million to purchase the rest of the company.

This development comes after Toronto-based theScore Bet, another cornerstone Penn brand, withdrew from the U.S. in recent months to focus on the Canadian market. theScore Bet also recently completed the migration of its services to its own in-house proprietary tech stack, which Barstool is expected to join in the second half of 2023.

Penn acquired Score Media and Gaming in October 2021 for US$2 billion.

In its Q2 financial update, Penn said that its Barstool-branded retail sportsbooks “resonate with the younger demographics and create meaningful cross-sell opportunities”. Barstool branding is utilized in Penn’s sports betting efforts at its casinos and with a betting app available in 11 states, and its sportsbook has a physical footprint in Louisiana and has retail launches in Kansas and Ohio on the horizon.

Penn generated a company-record US$1.6 billion last quarter, with its interactive segment — which includes Barstool Sportsbook, theScore Bet, and slot machines — seeing a 40 per cent bump in revenue.