Casting producers for the Emmy Award-winning prime-time ABC reality television series Shark Tank hold an open casting call at the Rivers Casino Philadelphia Event Center on Friday, April 11, 2025. Aspiring entrepreneurs with what show producers call “game-changing ideas” are able to pitch their businesses to casting producers for the series.

In collaboration with WPVI-TV/6abc, The Event Center at Rivers Philadelphia in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood, hosts an open casting call for Season 17 of the series, the first Philly casting since 2017.

The Shark Tank Casting Team hand out numbered wristbands between 9 and 11 AM, with the first pitches starting at approximately 10 AM. Applications are available online at ABC.com and on-site the morning of the event. Contestants are able to begin lining up at 8 AM on the morning of the casting call.

This is one of the few open casting calls that the Casting Team holds for Season 17.

Parking at Rivers is free, and a free shuttle runs throughout the day from the property’s main entrance to Riversuites at The Battery, Rivers’ hotel located across Penn Treaty Park.

During Season 4 of the show, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania’s Aaron Krause landed a deal with Shark Tank’s Lori Greiner for Scrub Daddy, which as of 2025 had became the best-selling sponge of all time. In Season 16 the Reading, Pennsylvania-based Bro Glo “self-tanner for the boys” company secured a deal from Mark Cuban.

Entrepreneurs, inventors, creators and innovators are encouraged to impress the Casting Team and perfect their pitches as if they’re stepping into the show’s famed “Tank.” All participants will have an equal opportunity to give a one-minute pitch about their business, product or idea to a member of the Casting Team. Successful candidates have the opportunity to secure investments, business partners and mentoring from the notoriously benevolent Sharks. For some budding business standouts, the journey to the famous Shark Tank studio in Greater Los Angeles starts April 11th in Philly.

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