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Penn Entertainment settles lawsuit over board of directors posts with investors
Penn Entertainment has expanded its board of directors as part of an agreement with investors who filed suit against the company to force the appointments.
Litigation over the composition and size of the board of directors of Penn Entertainment should soon subside, as Penn has reached a settlement of the dispute with the investor group that filed the complaint. In exchange for the plaintiff withdrawing the petition, Penn will add three individuals to its board whom the complainant, HG Vora, insisted upon.
Penn negotiates end to dispute over board positions
HG Vora filed its lawsuit against Penn in May 2025 but the point of contention has reached a resolution. According to Anshuman Tripathy of Reuters, the two parties have reached settlement terms.
Penn will add Heather Ace, Jeffrey Fox, and Fabio Schiavolin to its board of directors, and as a result, HG Vora will ask the court to dismiss its complaint. The lawsuit alleged that Penn violated federal and state laws by failing to preemptively notify investors that it was going to reduce the size of its board by one seat.
HG Vora is an investment firm that holds nearly 5% of Penn stock. Among other changes, HG Vora had pushed Penn to scale down its operations in the online gaming space to put more emphasis on its physical casino business.
Penn still operates the Hollywood-branded online casino in the US as well as theScore-branded online sports wagering products. Hollywood is among the online casinos that accept credit cards in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
As part of the agreement, HG Vora has committed to abstain from "activist investor" activities like campaigning for investors to support board candidates or trying to call for special meetings. With Ace, Fox, and Schiavolin soon to occupy board seats, such actions may be unnecessary for HG Vora to see Penn go in the direction it desires.
Bottom-line performance could drive Penn's future in iGaming
While Hollywood is not a dominant brand in terms of market share among the licensed options in MI, NJ, PA, or WV, it is one of the fastest payout online casinos, and Penn's share price could be more pivotal to the company's future than Hollywood's online casino market share. During the dispute, HG Vora asserted that Penn's investment in the online gaming space and failure to realize returns from that segment drove down the stock price.
The price has fallen sharply from a historic high in March 2021, when optimism about a burgeoning US online gaming market was at its peak for Penn.
The third quarter 2025 investor report stated that Penn performed well in the iGaming space, realizing its "highest quarterly gaming revenue to date" from the North American online casino vertical. Penn also offers theScore-branded online casino games in Ontario, besides its US products.
With several brick-and-mortar openings in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the cessation of payments to ESPN for the short-lived ESPN Bet venture, firmer financial footing could be ahead if the growth in iGaming continues.
Outside of Hollywood and theScore, anyone interested in online casino play in MI, NJ, PA, and WV can also check out the DraftKings Casino bonus for new players. MGM and Caesars casinos also offer no deposit bonus codes.
With the HG Vora lawsuit out of the way, the board of directors has new voices to guide the future of all of Penn's business interests. HG Vora's interests now represent a stronger set of voices in that entity.
Written by Derek Helling
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