Happy Tuesday, everyone. Sports betting news was largely Super Bowl-focused last week, with legislative issues sprinkled into the back half of the week.
The LSR Podcast focused on a bit of both in the most recent episode, including a breakdown of the most legally bet Super Bowl yet.
Make sure to follow @LSPReport on Twitter for the latest legislative stories as multiple states continue toward legal sports betting.
Top sports betting news: Super Bowl highs and lows
There were plenty of new highs set by the more than $440 million reported so far by legal US sports betting jurisdictions bet on the game. But a popular betting market, human error and general tech issues took multiple operators down Super Bowl Sunday.
Barstool Sportsbook, BetRivers and DraftKings Sportsbook had trouble validating bets for about an hour and a half before kickoff. All three use sportsbook platform Kambi, which was overloaded by one specific market.
BetMGM had issues of its own in Nevada where “human error” led to a system outage during the game.
PointsBet, NHL partner up
Before legal US sports betting, the NHL strongly opposed anything to do with gaming. Now it owns an equity stake in two separate US sportsbook companies.
The latest stake is in PointsBet. The Australian-listed operator announced the multiyear betting and marketing partnership, which included 43,106 PBH shares. The agreement will strongly benefit PointsBet’s recent deal with NBCUniversal as well.
The NHL and other professional teams have stakes in DraftKings as well.
Sports betting legislation roundup: AZ, CT, GA, HI, TX
A few states took positive steps toward legal betting while others’ outlooks seem a bit grimmer:
- An Arizona sports betting proposal got House committee approval but a Senate committee chose not to take action, which could suggest some opposition.
- Connecticut sports betting was included in Gov. Ned Lamont‘s budget. Lamont also filed a bill that would expand tribal compacts with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes to include sports betting and iGaming.
- A Georgia Senate bill offers a few significant differences from a House bill, including a lower tax rate and betting on college sports outside of Georgia. HB 86 would only allow betting on professional sports.
- Sports betting in Hawaii hit the backburner along with other gambling bills during a House committee meeting.
- Texas sports betting won’t happen this year, according to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. That does not mean the effort is done, though, as legislators likely will pursue it.
WynnBET racing toward NFL season
Wynn Resorts took its time before jumping into the US sports betting scene. Now, its new interactive segment is in a sprint to get its WynnBET brand launched in more states before the NFL season begins.
The brand has access to multiple states including Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nevada and Ohio.
WynnBET recently received approval to launch in Tennessee and could get a Virginia sports betting license as well.
Tennessee legislation would prevent lending-betting crossover
A bipartisan proposal in both Tennessee chambers would prevent lending companies from accepting bets from their lending customers.
The bill was spurred by a Tennessee Education Lottery approval that allows Advance Financial 24/7′s lending shops to take cash deposits for sister company Action 24/7.
Rep. Darren Jernigan also said he has a witness ready to testify that their TN sports betting winnings with Action 24/7 are being kept to pay outstanding Advance Financial loans. Advance Financial denied those claims and suggested a misunderstanding.
Indiana sports betting market still hitting highs
Sports betting in Indiana continues to thrive despite an unexpected and flourishing mobile Illinois sports betting market.
Indiana’s sportsbooks took nearly $350 million in handle with $29.3 million in revenue last month, both of which are new records.
The news is a bit surprising, as it was unclear how much of Indiana’s sports betting success was driven by bettors traveling from Chicago. Illinois reports about two months behind the rest of the market, so we’re still waiting for December and January reports.
