Happy Monday, everyone. This week, sports betting news should still focus largely on earnings calls, except for everyone waiting on Missouri.
The LSR Podcast dove into one of last week’s biggest stories: the online California sports betting proposal turning in 1.6 million signatures. That should all but ensure the proposal will hit the ballot, along with the retail-only tribal proposal.
There are now two places to get daily updates from LSR. Along with following @LSPReport on Twitter, tune into NewsWire on SportsGrid at 2:25 pm Eastern every weekday for our segment on the day’s biggest news.
Top sports betting news: Two more key calls this week
The two calls on tap this week are at opposite ends of the US sports betting spectrum.
First, Wynn Resorts reports its earnings at 4:30 pm ET Tuesday afternoon. The WynnBET brand does not appear to be fighting hard for market share, which is likely because of the rumored sale of its interactive business.
Perhaps the more interesting call is BetMGM, which kicks off at 11 am ET Thursday. BetMGM has come a long way from late-market entrant to a top-four operator in almost every jurisdiction.
Now or never (or next year) for Missouri
The outlook for a sports betting bill in Missouri is not completely negative, though there is little time left.
Negotiations are ongoing between the two chambers but the most recent attempt by Sen. Denny Hoskins to legalize MO sportsbooks was filibustered last Wednesday. It was a bit of Hoskins’ own medicine after he filibustered sports betting two weeks ago as he demanded VLTs be included.
Missouri’s legislative session ends Friday.
Recapping last week’s sports betting earnings calls
Catch up on the biggest story lines of last week’s earnings calls:
- Bally Bet 2.0 is now in go-live mode with the platform first launching in Arizona last week. US sports betting is not the only project on Bally’s plate, though, with a $1.7 billion casino license win in Chicago and a Dutch auction to buy back up to $500 million of its own shares.
- Caesars Sportsbook has seen “no degredation in handle share” despite the brand largely ending traditional marketing, CEO Tom Reeg said.
- FanDuel is still pushing to add customers, spending about $290 per acquisition with average paybacks in 12 to 18 months. Flutter CEO Peter Jackson boasted about FanDuel’s retention rates thanks to its superior product.
- Penn National‘s theScore Bet is having a strong Ontario sports betting launch, according to CEO Jay Snowden: “But in Ontario, every day since launch, we are seeing significant activity. High hundreds of first-time depositors and thousands of downloads every single day, all incremental to the first day.
- PointsBet has seen big improvement in its live betting business after the acquisition of Banach last year. Live betting accounted for 59% of all handle during its fiscal third quarter, up 22% over the previous year.
Maine passes, Ohio closer to launch
Maine will finally get legal sports betting after Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation to allow three online Maine sportsbooks along with retail sportsbooks.
The legislation will be effective in late July. Depending on how long the regulatory and licensing process takes, though, Maine’s market might not launch until later in the 2022 NFL betting season or even 2023.
Ohio, meanwhile, announced OH sports betting applications will be accepted from mid-June through mid-August. That could lead to an earlier launch than the mandated go-live date of Jan. 1, 2023.