Happy Monday, everyone. Mid-March means a bit of a slowdown for earnings calls but there is still plenty of sports betting news between legislatures and basketball.
It will be hard to match the news from last week, though. The latest LSR Podcast recapped some of the biggest stories of the year that dropped one on top of another.
Follow @LSPReport on Twitter for regular updates and breaking news alerts throughout the week. Totally understandable if you’re just too busy with March Madness betting this week, though.
This week’s top sports betting news: NJ reports Feb. results
One of the biggest things to watch this week is how New Jersey sportsbooks performed in February.
Wednesday’s report will be the second check-in on how New Jersey is weathering mobile New York sports betting, which launched Jan. 8.
January’s report did not show much of an impact. New Jersey operators took a state-record $1.349 billion in bets in January despite New York’s national record of $1.686 billion bet in its first 24 days. Mobile New York sportsbooks already reported $1.528 billion bet in February.
There are a lot of variables right now that could be muddying the waters of these reports including additional games for NFL betting in January and plenty of promo dollars still flowing through New York’s books.
NFL star Ridley suspended for betting
It was a busy week for NFL wide receivers, though the biggest news involving Calvin Ridley had nothing to do with a new team.
Instead, the closest Ridley will get to playing next year is when he picks up the sticks and jumps into Madden like the rest of us. Ridley placed multiple parlay bets that involved his Atlanta Falcons in November while he was away from the team.
Ridley is suspended for a year, which has drawn all the Twitter takes. Some of those make sense when drawing comparisons to lighter sentences handed down to players guilty of domestic violence. Other takes suggest Ridley did nothing wrong by betting on his own team, which should be a sign not to follow those accounts anymore.
The question now turns to what sportsbooks can do to make sure players are caught before placing bets.
Partner: bet365 preparing for Colorado launch
It sounds like bet365 might finally be taking its next steps into US sports betting.
Century Casinos co-CEO Peter Hoetzinger said bet365 should launch in Colorado in the second quarter, which runs April through June. A bet365 spokesperson did not respond to LSR when asked to confirm its Colorado sports betting plans.
LSR‘s Brad Allen took a look at why bet365 has taken such a slow approach so far in the US.
Could more NY sports betting operators launch?
There could be 16 mobile NY sportsbooks by January 2024 if New York’s government thinks those additional operators can grow the market.
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow and Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. introduced legislation that mirrors what they first wanted to see: an open market with plenty of operators. The problem is the tax rate, currently at a national-high 51%, would drop to 25% with the additional operators.
It seems unlikely those seven books could essentially double the market to keep tax revenue the same. Addabbo said it would not be prudent to expand the market if tax dollars were compromised.
