ESPN Bet reviews: what the ratings mean for Ontario

An "ESPN Bet review" found from Ontario is almost always a review of a US product. That product was renamed theScore Bet on 1 December 2025, and it never took a Canadian bet. So this page reviews the reviews: what the US ratings measured, what Ontario users of theScore Bet are saying now, and what the regulator has found.

The store ratings

Source: Apple's public lookup API, Canadian and US storefronts, 1 November 2026.

Those averages are high, and they're real — but an average over tens of thousands of mostly star-only ratings, many prompted inside the app, says more about whether the app runs smoothly than about how disputes are handled. For that, written reviews and regulators are better witnesses.

What recent written reviews say

We read the 100 most recent written reviews of theScore Bet in the Canadian App Store, covering 15 February to 29 October 2026. They split 55 one-star, 9 two-star, 6 three-star, 6 four-star and 24 five-star — a very different picture from the 4.7 average. For theScore Casino, the 37 most recent written reviews (April 2025 to October 2026) split 18 one-star, 3 two-star and 16 five-star. The recurring themes:

• Praise for the app itself. Even critical reviewers often call the interface clean and easy, and several prefer its layout to rival sportsbooks. One reviewer singled out the option to switch off casino access entirely and the responsible-gambling tools.
• Limits after winning. The most serious recurring complaint: accounts restricted to small maximum bets, or closed, after a run of wins. Sportsbooks in Ontario are allowed to manage risk this way; reviewers clearly resent it.
• Promotions not credited or hard to qualify for, with long back-and-forth with support.
• Crashes under load, especially on busy NFL Sundays and when cashing out mid-game.
• Odds and promos compared unfavourably with the largest rivals.
• Casino complaints typical of every casino app — long losing sessions described as rigged — alongside a few big-win stories.

Written reviews skew negative everywhere; people write when something goes wrong. Read them as a list of what can go wrong, not a probability that it will.

The AGCO record

Ontario's regulator publishes its penalties, and it has issued two to Score Media and Gaming Inc.

1. 7 October 2025 — C$105,000

   For alleged failures under the AGCO's responsible-gambling standards (2.01, 2.10 and 2.12). A customer wagered about $2.5 million and lost roughly $230,000 over eight months, around $100,000 of it in the first month, while repeatedly asking for bonuses and showing signs of distress to a VIP host. The AGCO said the operator relied on the customer's self-assessments and did not carry out meaningful due diligence or intervention.

2. October 2026 — C$200,000

   Under Standard 4.07, over a C$1,000 parlay placed on 14 March 2025. With one leg left, the platform offered a cash-out of about C$380,000, which the customer accepted and which was then rejected; a second offer of about C$100,000 was also accepted and not honoured. The last leg lost. Trade press reported it as the second-largest AGCO penalty against an online operator since 2022, after FanDuel's C$350,000 in January 2026.

Both orders could be appealed to the Licence Appeal Tribunal; we have not seen reporting on the outcome. The penalties are uncomfortable reading, and they're also the strongest argument for using a registered app: a customer of an unregistered site has nobody to take either case to.

Putting it together

We don't turn that into a number. If you decide theScore Bet is for you, it is the regulated Ontario product of the company that ran ESPN BET; read its terms, set limits first, and keep a record of anything you may need to dispute.

Visit theScore Bet ↗

Bet responsibly, in Ontario

Sports betting is entertainment that costs money. Over time the book keeps a margin on every market, and no promo changes that arithmetic.

• Decide the amount before you start, not during. A limit set mid-session isn't a limit.
• Use the tools the app gives you. Regulated Ontario apps must offer deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. theScore Bet's own deposit screen carries a "Set Responsible Gaming Limits" link next to the amount buttons.
• Never chase a loss, and never bet borrowed money or money that already has a job.
• Watch the time, not just the balance. Time spent is the earliest warning sign.

ConnexOntario is free, confidential and open 24/7 at 1-866-531-2600, by text at 247247 or by chat at connexontario.ca. Ontario also runs a centralized self-exclusion service, BetGuard (betguard.ca), that blocks you from every regulated online operator at once.