Industry News of the Day for October 24, 2023

By iDEA | October 24, 2023

Industry News

  • Legal Sports Report: Business By The Books: Q3 Sports Betting Earnings Start This Week
    • Third-quarter earnings season runs now through mid-November with calls concerning sports betting kicking off this week. PointsBet will hold its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday morning in Australia, or 7:30 pm Eastern Tuesday night in the US. The call could skew heavily toward the Australian business that will remain intact after PointsBet completes the sale of its US assets to Fanatics sometime in the first quarter of 2024. Two other companies that are not directly involved in sports betting, Boyd and Churchill Downs, also report this week.
  • Market Beat: DraftKings Plays The Right Cards In Online Gaming Growth
    • Online sports betting company DraftKings is forming a bullish base below an early August high of $34.49, as you can see on MarketBeat’s DraftKings chart.  The stock has been one of the 2023 heroes, advancing 143.37% year-to-date, although its current base means it’s posted a three-month decline of 10.15%.  The increased pace of online gaming legalization in the U.S. is a contributing factor to revenue growth. At the same time, the company is focused on operating efficiencies on its path to profitability. While $34.49 is the traditional buy point, investors with a more aggressive approach could potentially use a September 11 high of $32.65 as an early entry opportunity, as well as the October 11 high of $31.10.

Canada

  • Play Canada: Atlantic Lottery’s Successful Year Driven By Online Gambling Sector
    • Simply put, the 2022-23 fiscal year was a good one for the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. The Maritimes’ gambling authority recently released its annual report for 2022-23, confirming the latest fiscal year was more profitable than 2021-22. Overall, the Atlantic Lottery generated a net profit of $492.2 million, which signified a $54.1 million increase year-over-year. The company attributed the rise in profit to strong performances across key sectors, namely Nova Scotia’s online casino product that quietly went live last July. While the iLottery share of profit stayed consistent at 18% in 2022-23, profits still increased by $9.2 million thanks to the addition of an online casino in the Maritimes’ most populated province.

Colorado

  • SBC Americas: Proposed CO DFS Regs Aim To Clarify What Counts As Fantasy Sports
    • Next week, Colorado regulators will meet to discuss proposed regulations for daily fantasy sports in the state. The state legalized DFS relatively early on, passing a law in the summer of 2016. The regulations currently overseeing the industry are relatively brief. There are some distinctions between small and large fantasy operations (more or less than 7,500 users), but there is no clear definition of what a fantasy game is. Proposed regulations discussed at a Sept. 1 workshop will be up for discussion at an Oct. 30 meeting.

Maryland

  • US Bets: Maryland Legislative Committee Discusses iGaming’s Possible Problem Gambling Impact
    • Maryland’s Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee met last week, with problem gambling among the topics of discussion. The committee seemed particularly interested — and somewhat concerned — about what potential online casino legalization could mean for problem gambling in the state.  Retail sports betting went live in Maryland in December of 2021, and mobile sports betting platforms launched in the state last November. Meanwhile, Mary Drexler, the program director for the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, is worried about potential legalization of online casino games.

Nevada

  • Play USA: Regulators Make It Easier For Nevada Sportsbooks To Take Bets On Esports
    • The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) recently amended its esports betting regulations, and it should make gambling on events much easier. This approval comes after the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) recommended the new regulations created by the Esports Technical Advisory Committee. Additionally, the NGC did not approve a drug testing provision for the final regulations. This requirement would have been costly and could have impeded the expansion of esports betting. The changes have been a long time coming. The Nevada Esports Technical Advisory Committee worked on the regulation changes for a year.
  • The Nevada Independent: As Sports Betting Grows, Some Operators Skip Nevada Because Of In-Person Registration Requirements
    • Sports betting customers in the U.S. will soon have two new choices from companies hoping to slice into the market dominated by FanDuel and DraftKings. Fanatics Betting and Gaming, a division of the sports apparel giant, has launched a sports betting app in five states with eight more on the way through its $225 million purchase earlier this year of Australia-based PointBet’s U.S. operations. ESPN Bet will begin operating in 16 states in November after Penn Entertainment scrapped its Barstool Sports-branded sports betting operations for a 10-year, $1.5 billion deal with ESPN.

North Carolina

  • NC Sharp: Public Hearing On NC Sports Betting Rules Scheduled For Oct. 27
    • On Oct. 27, the NC Lottery Commission will hold its first public hearing on sports betting rules. The NCLC will not livestream or broadcast the hearing, but they will provide a transcript as a public record. The first round of sports betting rules put forth by the NCLC’s Sports Betting Committee include “application rules that apply to all license types under the Commission’s jurisdiction.” The only way to watch the first NCLC public hearing on North Carolina online sports betting rules is to attend in person. The hearing will take place at the North Carolina State Lottery Commission Headquarters on Friday, Oct. 27 at 9:00 a.m.
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