{"id":720,"date":"2025-05-21T22:25:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=720"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:10:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:10:04","slug":"vora-says-penn-destroyed-11-billion-in-value-with-sour-osb-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/vora-says-penn-destroyed-11-billion-in-value-with-sour-osb-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"Vora Says Penn Destroyed $11 Billion in Value with Sour OSB Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Vora says Penn fumbled online gaming opportunity by focusing on sports betting<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Vora estimates Penn destroyed $11 billion in shareholder value with bad sports wagering transactions<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Calls Penn a sports betting \u201claggard\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>In its latest salvo aimed at Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ: PENN), HG Vora said the gaming company has destroyed $11 billion in shareholder value since 2021 by focusing on sports wagering, simultaneously fumbling opportunity to establish itself as a leader in the internet casino space.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_352223\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-352223\" data-style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-352223 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"vora\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1377\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/PV.png\"><figcaption>HG Vora founder Parag Vora. A new presentation by the hedge fund claims Penn Entertainment eroded $11 billion in shareholder value with bad sports betting transactions. (Image: HG Vora)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a presentation entitled \u201cGenuine Change Is Needed At PENN,\u201d the hedge fund notes that soon after David Handler became chairman of the board in 2019 and Jay Snowden became chief executive officer the following year, the gaming company set out to become an online sports betting (OSB) leader, resulting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/penn-registers-shares-portnoy-can-sell-he-says-he-wont-sell\/\">in a series of ill-fated transactions<\/a> that plagued the stock price.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>Shareholders have suffered greatly due to poor strategic decisions, failed transactions, and poor execution; absolute and relative total shareholder returns have been abysmal and more than $11 billion of shareholder value has been destroyed since 2021,\u201d according to the hedge fund, which is attempting to place three hand-picked candidates on Penn\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The \u201cfailed transactions\u201d to which Vora is referring are Penn paying more than $500 million to acquire <em>Barstool Sports<\/em>, doling out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/penn-value-outcomes-include-killing-espn-bet-selling-thescore\/\">$2 billion in equity for theScore<\/a>, and the August 2023 agreement with <em>ESPN<\/em> that could cost as much as $2 billion over a decade. Vora notes that on a combined basis, those deals equate to more than double Penn\u2019s current market capitalization.<\/p>\n<h2>Penn Stock Has Languished Amid Sports Betting Focus<\/h2>\n<p>In a sentiment echoed by other investors, much of Vora\u2019s dismay regarding Handler and Snowden&#8217;s leadership revolves around two points. First, Penn was a strong stock for two decades prior to the operator pushing into OSB. Second, that emphasis prompted investors to focus more on sports wagering than the operator\u2019s profitable, though less glamorous, land-based regional casinos.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_352867\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-352867\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-352867 size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"\" width=\"858\" height=\"386\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-14-31-48-Genuine-Change-Is-Needed-at-PENN-682e1bcd37f42c869d2a058a_Genuine-Change-is-Needed-at-PENN.pdf-858x386-1.png\"><figcaption>Charts comparing Penn Entertainment&#8217;s share price performance pre- and post-sports betting. (Image: HG Vora)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Indeed, Penn is in the midst of an unceremonious decline. Fifty months ago, the stock traded at around $140 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-penn-national-rally-on-sp-500-inclusion\/\">joined the S&amp;P 500<\/a>. As of Wednesday, the shares closed at $14.20 and the stock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/penn-entertainment-going-to-small-cap-from-mid-cap-at-sp\/\">has since been removed<\/a> from both the S&amp;P 500 and S&amp;P MidCap 400 Index, and was sent packing to the S&amp;P SmallCap 600 Index.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>Last week, HG Vora founder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/its-on-vora-initiates-proxy-war-against-penn-entertainment\/\">Parag Vora sent a letter<\/a> to Penn shareholders in which he said \u201cPENN trades at a discount to its intrinsic value because its management team and Board of Directors have lost credibility and investors fear further value-destructive decisions.\u201d The money manager adds the gaming company\u2019s board has indulged Snowden\u2019s high compensation while shareholders have suffered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cPaid the CEO near the top of the Company\u2019s peer group despite consistent total shareholder return underperformance during his tenure; earned Say-on-Pay votes that were among the worst in the S&amp;P 600,\u201d according to the presentation.<\/p>\n<h2>Vora Not Buying Penn&#8217;s Claims<\/h2>\n<p>While there is some momentum for Penn\u2019s standalone Hollywood Casino iGaming platform, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vora-sues-penn-over-board-seat-flap-calls-it-affront-to-investor-democracy\/\">Vora isn\u2019t buying claims<\/a> that the operator\u2019s interactive unit \u201cis nearing an inflection point.\u201d The hedge fund points out that Penn has pushed the timeline for digital profitability out to 2026 from 2025, adding that ESPN Bet\u2019s market share of roughly 2% is well below the operator\u2019s long-term goal of 10%.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>Average monthly active users of PENN\u2019s Interactive products have declined by nearly 30% since the launch of ESPN Bet,\u201d according to the investor. \u201cPENN\u2019s Interactive segment is still losing money, with its most recent quarterly Adjusted EBITDA loss bringing its cumulative Adjusted EBITDA losses since 2019 above $1 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Vora believes value can be created at Penn by refreshing the board with its three independent candidates, right-sizing executive compensation, introducing more challenging related benchmarks, and developing specific strategies for each component in the interactive unit.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vora-says-penn-destroyed-11b-in-value-with-sour-osb-deals\/\">Vora Says Penn Destroyed $11 Billion in Value with Sour OSB Deals<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vora says Penn fumbled online gaming opportunity by focusing on sports betting Vora estimates Penn destroyed $11 billion in shareholder value with bad sports wagering transactions Calls Penn a sports betting \u201claggard\u201d In its latest salvo aimed at Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ: PENN), HG Vora said the gaming company has destroyed $11 billion in shareholder value since 2021 by focusing on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}