The Week In Sports Betting News: Penn Climbs On Barstool’s Wings


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Happy Monday, everyone. This week will feature no shortage of sports betting news as most legal states should report their Super Bowl handle, but last week had plenty of news as well.

The LSR Podcast talked about what Super Bowl betting looks like in the US this year compared to last year along with some of last week’s top stories.

Make sure to follow @LSPReport on Twitter for updates as states report Sunday’s Super Bowl action.

Top sports betting news: Penn outlines Barstool Sportsbook plans

Penn National focused its year-end earnings call heavily on its plans for Barstool Sportsbook, which will continue to roll out to new states this year.

Penn plans to enter the Illinois sports betting market first and hopes to be live by March Madness. After that, CEO Jay Snowden said to expect a new mobile state launch every three to five weeks in the other open and available states.

Retail sportsbook conversions to the Barstool Sportsbook brand will also continue, Snowden said. That begins with Pennsylvania casinos in the first half.

Snowden also noted the Penn Interactive business segment could be profitable since its acquiring customers at what he said are industry lows. It cost less than $200 per Michigan sports betting customer for Penn compared to the $300 to $800 per customer the rest of the industry pays, he added.

Penn National’s stock dipped in early pre-market trading after missing some financial estimates from Wall Street but eventually jumped to an all-time high of $128.91 by Friday’s close.

Arizona sports betting bills introduced

The latest attempt to legalize sports betting in Arizona might just have the legs to cross the finish line this year.

A joint proposal across both chambers includes sports betting licenses for Arizona’s professional sports teams and Indian gaming operators.

The proposal leaves out a few important details, such as a tax rate and license fees. The bills also call for official league data and would let leagues receive an integrity fee from sportsbooks.

Additional betting legislation round-up

There were seven other states with recent legislation news:

U.S. Integrity gets $1 million seed funding

Sports betting monitor U.S. Integrity secured $1 million in its latest funding round from SeventySix Capital and investment consortium New York Angels.

U.S. Integrity plays a crucial role in the development of the legal US sports betting market, Wayne Kimmel said. Kimmel is both a SeventySix Capital managing partner and sits on the U.S. Integrity board.

The company’s data-driven monitoring program uses account-level betting detail along with dozens of other data sets to look for irregular activity. The cash will fund continued innovation for new technology.

“The interest we received in this round validates our mission to provide conflict-free fraud detection tools to meet the ever-increasing demands of integrity compliance within the sports betting industry,” U.S. Integrity co-founder and CEO Matthew Holt said.

DraftKings makes play for Canada with NFL partnership

It might not technically be sports betting news, but DraftKings‘ expanded NFL partnership into Canada likely has more than just daily fantasy sports in mind.

The expanded exclusive DFS agreement gives DraftKings access to NFL branding and content opportunities in the DK app and across NFL Media.

The official release never talks sports betting but it’s probably not just a coincidence that sports betting in Canada looks ready to end its federal ban on single-game betting.

Elsewhere, DraftKings got its first investment from an ARK investment fund which helped send the stock to an all-time high by Friday’s close.

Iowa soars with remote registration

The end of in-person registration led to all new highs in handle and revenue for sports betting in Iowa.

Handle jumped to $149.5 million with $11.3 million in sports betting revenue. Three casinos reported more than $20 million in mobile handle, up from just one in December:

  • $22.7 million for Diamond Jo Dubuque, partnered with FanDuel Sportsbook.
  • $21.6 million for Wild Rose Jefferson, partnered with BetRivers and DraftKings Sportsbook.
  • $21.6 million for Prairie Meadows, partnered with William Hill.