Industry News of the Day for June 28, 2023

By iDEA | June 28, 2023

Industry News

  • Legal Sports Report: Fanatics Boosts PointsBet Offer To Win Bidding As DraftKings Falls Off
    • Fanatics will increase its original offer by 50% to buy the US assets of PointsBet for $225 million, outbidding DraftKings Tuesday evening. The PointsBet shareholder meeting to approve the deal will still be held at 11 am local time Friday, or 9 PM Eastern Thursday. DraftKings did not finalize a binding offer by 6 pm local time Tuesday. The company declined comment when reached by LSR. Per the amended agreement, PointsBet cannot consider other offers.
  • TheLines: Sports Betting Advertising Research Shows $2 Billion In 2023 Spending
    • New research shows the U.S. has seen a surge in sports betting advertising in 2023. Marketing and advertising across the best sports betting sites is set to eclipse $2 billion in 2023. This would mark an 8% increase year over year in ad spend across the nation. Additionally, since 2018, sports betting advertising spend has increased by 400%. Let’s look further into this sportsbook research to learn more.
  • SBC Americas: New Funding Round Pushes Betr’s Valuation To $300m
    • Despite a relatively inauspicious start as a US online sports betting operator, a new round of funding for upstart micro-betting operator Betr generated $35 million for the company, which is now valued at $300 million. The company completed its Series A2 funding round during this quarter with the round led by IA Sports Ventures, Eberg Capital, and Fuel Venture Capital upping its stake from $10 million to $20 million.
  • PlayUSA: Australian Stock Exchange Halts PointsBet Trading Pending Potential US Operations Sale
    • If you’re active on the stock exchange in Sydney, Australia, your last-minute move to buy up some PointsBet stock is too last-minute. On Tuesday, the exchange suspended trading of PointsBet shares indefinitely. The prudent move is in anticipation of a stockholder vote regarding the potential sale of PointsBet’s operations in the United States on Friday. There is intrigue around whether that vote will indeed take place and if so, how it will go.

California

  • Gaming Today: California Sports Betting Initiative Behind Prop 27 Proposed for 2024 Ballot
    • California legal sports betting was tromped at the polls last fall when two competing proposals both fell by landslides. Now one of them may make another run for the ballot in 2024. The initiative that was behind Prop 27 – a sportsbook-led proposal for legal online and mobile sports wagering in California that lost at the polls last year – is listed as “active” on the ballot measures page of the Office of the California Attorney General.

Kentucky

  • PlayKentucky: Expert: Kentucky Sportsbook Ad Spending Will Be Less Than Other States
    • Residents of legal sports betting states can confirm: Sportsbook ads seem to be everywhere. Kentuckians, too, will soon face the deluge of messaging from the likes of Caesars Sportsbook, FanDuel and DraftKings. But the analysts at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming expect the sportsbooks in the Kentucky sports betting industry to spend less on advertising than in other similar-sized markets. As the main reason behind the prediction, in a market summary provided to PlayKentucky, EKG cites Kentucky’s six neighboring states where sports betting is already legal as an opportunity for “shared media market cost savings.”

Maryland

  • US Bets: Maryland Lottery Begins Work To Study Potential Online Gaming Expansion
    • Senator Ron Watson’s bill to bring legal online casino gaming in front of Maryland voters fell short during the state’s 2023 legislative session. Watson was, however, able to generate interest among legislators in what iGaming expansion in Maryland might look like.  The state’s FY 2024 budget requires the Maryland Lottery to submit a report on iGaming to the General Assembly.

Minnesota

  • Legal Sports Report: Minnesota Sports Betting Sponsors Bullish On 2024 After Falling Short This Year
    • As the map of states without legal sports betting quickly shrinks, there are few markets with as good of a shot to legalize next year as Minnesota. It appeared to be a relatively clean path for MN sports betting legalization entering 2023. Still, a few developments kept the issue from joining a bundle of legislation the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party could champion heading into an election year. The DFL controls both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office, but because of some in-party opposition, sports betting cannot pass without the help of Republicans.

New Jersey

  • AP News: New Jersey Moving To Extend Its Tops-In-The-Nation Internet Gambling Market For Another 10 Years
    • New Jersey is moving to extend its tops-in-the-nation internet gambling market for another 10 years. A state Assembly committee approved a bill Tuesday that would allow online casino gambling to run through 2033. The measure now goes to the full Senate and Assembly for final votes, possibly on Friday. Internet gambling has been a success story in New Jersey, which has won more from online gamblers than any of the five other states that also allow it.

New York

  • CDC Gaming Reports: Analyst Blasts New York Governor In Scathing Legislative Roundup
    • B Global founder Brendan Bussmann pulled no punches today when assessing New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul’s latest foray into gaming policy. Bussmann characterized Hochul’s attempted entente cordiale with the Seneca Nation as a “hold my beer, I’m going to take this state to a new level of chaos” gambit. Saying he stood corrected on previously more optimistic assessments of prospects for gambling expansion in the Empire State, Bussmann fumed, “Not only is the process for the downstate casinos in a perpetual delay, but now the governor’s office has tried to pull a fast one on everyone for a new casino in Rochester under the cover of darkness …

North Carolina

  • NC Sharp: The Best Launch Dates For NC Sports Betting
    • Sports fans in North Carolina are at the mercy of the North Carolina Lottery Commission to determine when online sports betting will launch in the Tar Heel State. Up to 12 online sports books could operate in North Carolina. The launch window is Jan. 8 to June 14, 2024. Not all launch dates are created equal, however. NCSharp takes a look at four launch dates that make sense for North Carolina online sports betting to maximize the state’s return.
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