Penn’s theScore conducts notable layoffs of many prominent writers and editors

This week marked yet another pivot point in the history of theScore. That outlet started as a third Canadian sports television channel in competition with Bell’s TSN and Rogers’ Sportsnet, but sold the linear channel to Rogers and shifted to an all-digital endeavor in 2012 (based around their score-focused app, but with significant written and video content incorporated in that, including The Basketball Jones).

Since those days, theScore has gone through further changes. They’ve long had a betting focus, dating back to the TV days. That was reinforced when U.S. gaming company Penn Entertainment bought theScore in 2021. Of course, that came after Penn previously bought a minority stake that would eventually become a majority stake in Barstool Sports, which Penn would later sell back to Dave Portnoy for $1 so they could sign an ESPN Bet deal. And there have been many discussions about where Penn wants to take theScore.

But with and around that, theScore has also featured a lot of remarkable sports journalism, including remarkable deep-dive features in baseball, soccer, hockey, and more. There have been changes to the personnel putting those out over the years, including some past layoffs, but there has continued to be a notable digital journalism operation at the company. However, a lot of the key figures in their current efforts announced Thursday and Friday that they have been let go. Here are a few of those announcements:

These layoffs come amidst wider cuts in the U.S. media market around advertising downturns, tariff-related economic impacts, and more. And in Canada, the on-or-off state of U.S. tariffs has had a particular economic impact (to say nothing of “51st state” rhetoric from U.S. president Donald Trump, which has shown up in sports at times).

There’s also growing uncertainty around the future of sports betting, which is relevant here given theScore’s ownership. And the company has been through major changes before and has  still managed to produce notable work. But with all that said, this certainly does seem to mark at least a notable shift for them. And it means a lot of veteran sportswriters and editors are on the market.