Winning Mobile NY Sportsbooks To Be Selected Monday


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NY sportsbooks

The winning bidders who will get to launch mobile NY sportsbooks will be announced Monday, wrapping up a four-month process.

The New York State Gaming Commission published the agenda for Monday’s 1:30 pm meeting, which includes “Mobile Sports Wagering Consideration of License Recommendation.” Mobile NY sports betting regulations are also up for adoption at the meeting.

There is not much excitement around which of the six bidders will win at this point. The New York Post reported earlier this week that the two largest consortia will be licensed for NY sports betting:

Those winners would have gross sports betting revenue taxed at 51%.

Any other NY sportsbooks?

The Post only mentioned one other bid specifically – Fanatics, Penn National‘s Barstool Sportsbook and Kambi. A source close to the group said it had not received the same paperwork to sign as the expected winning bidders received.

Barstool being on the outside seems even clearer after Thursday’s Penn investor conference call. Penn CEO Jay Snowden gave an assessment of the market awaiting mobile NY sportsbooks and did not mince words:

“I think, objectively speaking, you’d probably rather be in than not be in, but it’s one of those states where if you’re not in you’re not crushed by that either. Maybe from a TAM perspective and a revenue perspective but I think it’s just going to be a margin killer. I think it’s going to be an EBITDA detractor.”

Expected winners have a different tune

Lee Fenton, CEO of Bally’s, offered a stark contrast to Snowden’s outlook on Bally’s call:

“Obviously, I think it will change the cost dynamic for all operators that enter that market in terms of how they might address and attack that market but, clearly, New York is not a market that you want to miss out on.”

MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle all but confirmed BetMGM will launch on MGM’s conference call:

“I will tell you it is the largest market we have launched to date with the MLife database,” Hornbuckle said. “Time will tell with sports how much money is to be made. For us, it’s an omni-channel play. It’s a brand play and we’re going to have a huge presence there. And hopefully someday we get to online, icasino, but that’s something for well down the road.”

When could mobile NY betting launch?

New Jersey sportsbooks and recently launched Connecticut sports betting will still feel a boost from New York bettors for a while.

There is still work to be done before mobile NY sports betting can launch; it’s not as simple as flipping a switch. Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. reiterated a lot of the launch timeline comes down to when servers will be ready at New York’s commercial casinos.

Addabbo just two weeks ago stuck to his guns that legal Super Bowl betting will take place in New York this February, which now seems much more likely:

“I’ll stick with the aggressive optimism that we’re going to do this hopefully by the beginning of the year and certainly by the Super Bowl.”