Happy Monday, folks. Sports betting news does not get much bigger than what’s going down in New York today.
The LSR Podcast dives into that story, as well as the surprising launch of Florida sports betting and more, in the latest episode.
Stay tuned to @LSPReport on Twitter for all this week’s big news.
Top sports betting news: New York stepping into mobile age
New York sports betting could get a whole lot more exciting as soon as this afternoon.
Barring any last-minute changes, the winners of New York’s mobile sports betting RFA should be announced at Monday’s regulatory meeting. Some of the anticipation is gone following a New York Post report that says the two largest consortiums with nine total sportsbooks will be selected.
Whether Penn National and Fanatics or the three solo bidders get in is unclear. The Post reported Fanatics did not get the same kind of paperwork to sign as the other consortia.
Penn CEO Jay Snowden downplayed the market’s importance and called it a “margin killer.” That does not seem like what the CEO of a public company would do before winning a license. The CEOs of two expected winners had much more positive tunes on their conference calls.
The meeting can be live-streamed at 1:30 pm Eastern.
More earnings calls this week
Earnings season continues this week, albeit with a slower schedule than last week (all times Eastern):
- Full House Resorts, 4:30 pm Monday: Full House’s calls do not typically tread heavily into sports betting but they have sports betting operations and skin partners in Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi and Nevada.
- Wynn Resorts, 4:30 pm Tuesday: WynnBET recently announced market access in West Virginia for online sports betting and casino. The brand is live in seven states with varying market access to 18 states.
- Rush Street Interactive, 5 pm Wednesday: If you had to pick one of the three, this is the one that will give you the best look into US sports betting trends. The call could offer some of the first numbers out of the Connecticut sports betting market and discuss its Arizona launch as well.
Last week’s top sports betting news: Florida is live?
One of the biggest sports betting markets in the US launched last week to almost everyone’s surprise.
Hard Rock Sportsbook took its first bets in Florida last Monday. The launch followed a release from the Seminole Indians from the week before announcing five pari-mutuel partners that will market the app for a 60% cut of those profits.
Whether the app is even operating legally at this point is still up in the air. A federal judge is expected to rule on a lawsuit seeking to stop Florida sports betting this week.
Positive trends reported by DraftKings, FanDuel
DraftKings luckily had a lot of positive things to report to distract from its significant quarterly net losses, including $304 million spent on sales and marketing.
DraftKings Sportsbook saw good results out of Arizona with 100,000 customers signed up in 17 days. That is about eight times faster than it took for that many customers to sign up in New Jersey.
Elsewhere, the CEO FanDuel Sportsbook‘s parent company Flutter said others might be giving up in more mature states because of the brand’s lead:
“In places like New Jersey and Pennsylvania, it sometimes feels like some of the other operators have given up because we’ve got such a commanding lead.”
Other top stories from LSR
- A bill legalizing mobile sports betting in North Carolina saw action last week but other issues are expected to push this one to next year.
- A lawsuit concerning Arizona sports betting could be settled out of court. Elsewhere, BetMGM opened the first in-casino sportsbook in Phoenix.
- Barstool Sportsbook and Fubo Sportsbook both launched Iowa sportsbooks.
- Maryland sports betting is still on hold with an unclear timeline on retail or mobile launches.
- New Jersey voters decided not to allow betting on in-state colleges at NJ sportsbooks.
- Ohio sports betting is still in the negotiation stage, according to comments from Sen. Kirk Schuring.
- Tennessee sports betting hit new records for both handle and revenue in its first September since launch.
