Bally Bet has no intention of competing in NY sports betting by throwing around stacks of free cash right now.
Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim told CNBC‘s Contessa Brewer the Bally Bet mobile sportsbook would not launch until April. Kim’s New York sports betting comments came from a longer interview concerning his Standard General bidding to buy all of Bally’s.
That means the brand will miss out on two key customer acquisition periods: Super Bowl betting and March Madness betting.
Bally Bet says long-term the goal
Kim said the company is OK with a delayed NY sports betting launch because of its long-term plans:
“Oh yeah, we’re OK with that. I think that look, we have a longer-term plan and I think part of this is why maybe our plan isn’t fully being grasped by the public markets. The public markets tend to be very short-term minded, what’s going to happen in the next earnings, what’s going to happen at the next, you know.
“But we think that actually, the current version of sports betting is not a great business. It’s a fine business, it’s not a great business. We think that there will be a wave of consolidation that will rationalize promotions. But more importantly, I think people will stop competing with just free money but people will start competing with product.”
Kim: promo environment for NY sports betting ‘insane’
There was a thought that New York’s operators might be more reasonable with promotions since there are just the nine licensees and the 51% tax, Kim said.
Instead, it’s been “insane:”
“As a New York state citizen I thought this is great. I mean, it’s insane, it’s so … look, I think it’s kind of funny. Like literally – without casting aspersions on all of our fellow colleagues and industry participants – but you could literally open an account with one person, open an account with another person, get your free promotional money and bet separately, different ways on the same game, and you will win on one of them. Like, I don’t know why everyone’s not doing that.”
The biggest promotional offer came from Caesars Sportsbook, which offered $3,300 in promos at launch. That helped the book grab a 42.7% share of the $603 million bet through the first nine days.
There are six sportsbooks now live in the market after BetMGM launched last week and PointsBet launched Monday. Only Bally Bet, Resorts World Bet and WynnBET – which is up for sale – remain on the sidelines.
