MGM Adds MLB to Its List of ‘Official Partners’

Major League Baseball is following in the footsteps of the NBA and NHL, and on Tuesday announced a partnership with MGM, which now becomes baseball’s official gaming and entertainment partner. MGM already has similar deals with the NBA and NHL, and now will have access to official data and sponsorship rights from three of the four U.S. professional sports leagues.

The deal gives MGM non-exclusive rights to the MLB’s official stats, but the company will have exclusive rights to some of the league’s advanced stats.

“We are pleased to partner with MGM Resorts International, a clear industry leader in the sports gaming area, to work together on bringing innovative experiences to baseball fans and MGM customers,” said baseball commissioner Robert Manfred in an press release. “Our partnership with MGM will help us navigate this evolving space responsibly, and we look forward to the fan engagement opportunities ahead.”

MLB Falls Into Line With NBA, NHL in Naming MGM Its ‘Official Partner’ in a Non-Exclusive Deal

 

 

Read more MGM Adds MLB to Its List of ‘Official Partners’ on SportsHandle.

MGM, Caesars Among Founding Members of Sports Betting Integrity Monitoring Group

MGM and Caesars are among the members of a new not-for-profit that will monitor integrity in sports betting. The organization, the Sports Wagering Integrity Monitoring Association, will bring together key gaming stakeholders, including state and tribal regulatory bodies, federal, state and tribal law enforcement, in an effort to uncover and prevent fraud and other illegal activities related to sports betting and sporting events.

The group is modeled after the Europe Sport Security Association which monitors sports betting and sports events for fraud. 888Sport, PaddyPower/BetFair and William Hill are among ESSA’s members. According to SportTechie.com, ESSA was involved in the creation of SWIMA and the two organizations plan to work together to monitor integrity.

 
 

Read more MGM, Caesars Among Founding Members of Sports Betting Integrity Monitoring Group on SportsHandle.

Caesars’ Horseshoe Casinos Baltimore Become Ravens’ Official Casino Partner

 

Following in the Dallas Cowboys’ footsteps, the Baltimore Ravens have forged an official partnership with the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, becoming the second NFL team to strike such an agreement since the league decided in September to permit marketing deals between casinos and its teams.

The Horseshoe Casino, a Caesars Entertainment property, is walking distance to the Raven’s M&T Bank Stadium — less than a mile down Warner street.

Ravens and Caesars executives announced the deal on Friday alongside Ravens’ Hall of Fame left tackle Jonathan Ogden. Like the Cowboys’ deal with the WinStar World Casino in Oklahoma, the second-of-its-kind deal designating a casino as an official team partner will permit the Horseshoe to use the Ravens’ team marks and logos for on-site promotions, according to the release on the Ravens’ website.

What to Expect at "The Book," Coming to The Horseshoe Tunica in Mississippi

The post What to Expect at The ‘Book,’ Sportsbook Coming Soon to The Horseshoe Tunica in Mississippi appeared first on SportsHandle.

As the calendar turns to August, we’l soon see the rollout of legal Mississippi sports betting at several of the dozen-plus properties that have applied for a license. MGM’s Beau Rivage in Biloxi and the Gold Strike in Tunica will go first, following the company’s announcement on Monday of a August 1 launch (Wednesday).

In mid-August, Gold Strike’s next door neighbor, The Horseshoe Tunica Hotel & Casino (a Caesars Entertainment property), will be off and running.

The Horseshoe’s Race & Sportsbook manager Chris McConnell has spent the last 20 years working in sports betting and racing operations or organizations. Sports Handle caught up with McConnell recently for a glimpse into preparations and some words about the wagering menu, the physical property, and an approximate opening. 

Mississippi Sports Betting August Rollout: Caesars’ Horseshoe Tunica to Introduce ‘The Book,’ With Regional Props to Come

caesars sportsbook las vegas horseshoe tunica ms sports betting
The Caesars Palace Race & Sports Book in Las Vegas

Sports Handle (SH): Can you tell us what patrons can expect of physical sportsbook space?

CM: First of all, it’s temporary space a right now, and we’re calling it ‘The Book.’ It’s constructed adjacent to our World Series of Poker Bar and our poker room. It’s going have 12 large screen TVs, sized from about 65 to to 75 inches.

And we’ll also have three large screen TVs for updated odds on sporting events. Basically our data wall. And one of them, one of the things that we are going to be doing that’s a little bit different, because we are in SEC country, we’re probably going to do some regional proposition wagers, just for our property here. Within The Book, there’s going to be five [betting] windows presently. One of them is an ADA window.

SH: On or about what date do you expect The Book will open?

CM: We don’t have a hard date on that. I would say somewhere around mid-August.  And I suspect when we go to do a launch, we’ll try to do it, a super soft launch like on a Monday. We’re not gonna open up on a weekend. We’re trying to do it the right way for the customers, but also make sure people are properly trained.

What Caesars did here was seek people internally that had some background in that to alleviate downtime and to increase the training right off the bat. Anything they have in Vegas, we’re working on bringing it into The Book.

SH: What can patrons expect of betting menu and odds?

CM: The Book and Caesars sportsbooks will coordinate across the country, so we’re going to be integrated. From a waginerg standpoint, we can take larger wagers if we want to based upon pooling and everything. We’re going to emphasize regional sports and wagering.

We understand that it’s a new experience for a lot of people and we have a lot of tips and handicapping things and a lot more information to hand out for people that don’t know what the lines mean and how to wager. We cater to everyone. Newbies, we have it set up that we’ll have training to assist new people as well as the experienced better.

SH: Any sense of how much appetite there is now for sports betting in Mississippi based on people coming by and asking or calling in?

CM: Well, let me tell you, as soon as we actually put up a few signs right around it, coming soon, you know, Horseshoe Tunica ‘The Book’ … we are literally quite adjacent to the World Series of Poker Room. Tons of people have been asking the poker supervisors and the staff over there. When is it coming? I met with Lisa, who’s the GM over at the poker room and she goes, ‘We must get 20, 30 when is it gonna open?’ questions a day. It’s not so much what’s the offering — they know what it is, but when’s it coming.

(Editor’s note: McConnell noted that Harrah’s Gulf Coast will be opening around the same time, too.):

SH: Will you guys be offering at some point on-premises mobile wagering, which is allowed under the existing regulations as you know?

CM:  Yes, but we want to get the live retail stuff going first and then do that. It comes geo-fencing with the property. Well, does that mean like in our property including The Roadhouse? So, define property. Is it the physical location of The Horseshoe? Or does it include our property which is basically next door?

SH: What about the possibility in the future of mobile betting opening up outside the property, which is big in Nevada and for offshores?

CM: We have a long history of working closely with Mississippi Gaming Commission and regulators to bring the latest technology and innovation that is beneficial to our customers and the Mississippi gaming industry to our operations. We will continue to work closely with regulators to improve our operations and customer experience.

SH: To what extent are you guys working with a Nevada-based team to assist in preparations?

CM: The Nevada team will be doing all of our odds. So, that helps us here. Like with MGM, you set your own lines and stuff like that. We don’t have to worry about that. Our thing is customer care — taking care of the customer. Our lines are coming from a team of experts that have been doing it in Las Vegas for years. So, it works very well for the customers. They’re getting the best lines, but the people out here don’t have to worry about moving lines back and forth.

SH: Can you give example of the kind of regional prop you expect to offer?

CM: You could do two Mississippi teams and we could say something like which team will score the most offensive points this week? Like a head-to-head matchup. We can also do same thing with individual quarterbacks or something like that or running backs. So we can do team props, player props, points or scoring. Which team will score the most points in the first half.

Not only for, pro football, we can also do it for college football and things like that. We can keep the regional nature of it if we want to or if people have an appetite for those type of wagers, we can do that also.

So, we can have a little bit different wagers than what is being offered in Las Vegas, even that. It won’t be a whole wall of it. I’ll be three to five easy each weekend type of stuff or each, you know, maybe a Saturday, Sunday, it might be different.

MS legal sports betting sportsbooks tunica horseshoe

SH: What are you most excited about as you prepare to roll this out?

CM: I think it’s good for the overall industry. I’m in the industry, so I think it’s a good thing in whatever state. I hope more states do adopt it and do it. Will it impact Las Vegas? Las Vegas is so big, people that went to Vegas to bet sports, they go up for a week or else they move there.

We’ve added more people here. We’ve hired more people. We’ve talked about doing it that way. It’s like if they want music or a band or something, well they want sports betting. Once they said we were going to get it, everyone was excited. And once we start putting up those curtains, man, the temperature shot up a thousand degrees because now it’s the reality of it.

So, it’s a good thing that it’s happening in the industry. It’s good for our property and it’s good for the people here. We’re so close to Memphis, we appreciate the people taking the ride down. It’s a little bit different dynamic than say Vegas. These people choose to come here to have fun, to wager responsibly. And so the thing for me, from managing the racing and sports, I want to give them the best that I can. You know, they made the effort, we gotta make the effort times ten back to them.

The post What to Expect at The ‘Book,’ Sportsbook Coming Soon to The Horseshoe Tunica in Mississippi appeared first on SportsHandle.

Get a Grip: Week in Sports Betting and Sports: New Jersey, DraftKings Sportsbook

The post Get a Grip: Week in Sports Betting and Sports: New Jersey, DraftKings Sportsbook appeared first on SportsHandle.

It’s information overload everywhere, and there’s not time enough to sleep and eat and stay fully apprised of what’s happening on this crazy blue dot of ours (two out of three ain’t bad).

Here’s the weekend Sports Handle item, “Get a Grip,” rounding up top stories in legal sports betting and gaming, and the world of sports at large. You may have missed them, and they are worth reading. This is meant to be brief, so that’s it.

New Jersey Sports Betting Population Will Be Increasing; DraftKings Sportsbook to Enter NY Sports Betting Picture

harrahs new jersey sports betting sportsbook coming

With state legislatures on break for the summer (and most already adjourned), things have been less frenetic recently in the legal sports betting world. New Jersey sports betting remains front-and-center as the licensure process continues.

The above-the-fold headline of the week probably is that story: Another wave of casinos apply to join the New Jersey sports betting picture. This came after the potential licensee casinos got a kick in the rear from Division of Gaming Enforcement and director David Rebuck — who said that if they didn’t submit applications for a sports wagering certificate soon, they might not gain approval before football season.

So the casinos quickened their pace and the DGE received applications on Monday from the Golden Nugget for retail and mobile/web-platform wagering; from Caesars Entertainment for its properties Harrah’s and Bally’s for both retail and online operations and Caesars for online; also among the group pushing in their application (of which one is not yet identified, perhaps it’s Hard Rock Atlantic City) was Resorts , which previously partnered with SB Tech and DraftKings and will use some combination of those two entities for its retail and online offerings.

Speaking of DraftKings, the DFS-turned-sportsbook operator landed a deal with del Lago Resort & Casino in New York’s upstate Finger Lakes region. The property has struggled since launching in February 2017, so when NY lawmakers get around the legalizing sports wagering, which we guesstimate will occur in March 2019, sports betting will be a needed shot in the arm.

The partnership is a boon to DraftKings given the sheer size of the opportunity and legislation expected to open up the entire state to competition online, without a foolish in-person registration requirement in a state that’s sparsely populated by casinos. The open competition will be a win for New York patrons, too.

And of course, as in New Jersey where only casinos and racetracks are eligible for licenses at this point — in all likelihood the requirement will be the same in New York — establishing this relationship now was good move. Same as what FanDuel/Paddy Power Betfair accomplished by hooking up with New York racetrack Tioga Downs Casino Resort and racetrack, which is owned by Jeff Gural, who also owns Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, N.J., which just launched its retail FanDuel Sportsbook last Saturday.

The Other Most Important Stories of the Week in Sports Betting and U.S. Gaming

nj sports betting monmouth park sportsbook line shopping

THE MARKETPLACE: Meadowlands vs. Monmouth Park: It Pays to Shop Around [NJ OG]

MARCH MADNESS: Untold story of the craziest semi-legal NCAA tournament gambling contest ever [Penn Live]

PARTNERSHIPS: FanDuel Group teaming with GAN for casino and sports betting software in NJ [Biz Wire]

SAGA CONTINUES: Pennsylvania sports betting taxes so high legal bookmakers may shun state [Philly]

MIDWEST: Iowa regulators gear up for possible Iowa sports betting in ‘19 [Radio]

PROBABLE: Both SEC and Big 12 commissioners see injury reports as an inevitability [CBS]

HEY HEY VA: General Assembly could see efforts to allow sports gambling, official says [Pilot]

READY, SET, WAIT: Mississippi sports betting not quite ready yet [Advocate]


Stories of Note in the Wider World of Sports and Kinda Sports.

EXPLOITATION: Four reasons taxpayers should never subsidize stadiums [Bloomberg]

REINVENTIONS: Ranking the 15 talents to most successfully leave ESPN since 2000 [TBL]

NOSTALGIA: For one last night, make it a Blockbuster night [Ringer]

DEBACLE: NFL, players agree to temporarily halt enforcement of anthem protest rules [NPR]


Quote of the Week:

Philadelphia Eagles lineman Jason Kelce on the difference between the Vikings’ and Patriots’ defenses during their Super Bowl run:

“The last defense we had seen was Minnesota’s, and we were like, ‘These dudes have got some players.’ Then we see [the Patriots] and we’re like, ‘These dudes have got some . . . coaches.’ ”


Tweets/Videos of Note:

 

 

ICYMI at Sports Handle:

Players’ Claim of ‘Serious Consequences’ of Sports Betting Is A Hail Mary

MLB Commish Rob Manfred Touts Virtues of Wagering, Addresses Sports Bettings Laws

Football Contests of Old Helped Create Today’s Massive Sports Betting Popularity

The post Get a Grip: Week in Sports Betting and Sports: New Jersey, DraftKings Sportsbook appeared first on SportsHandle.

Another Wave of Casinos Apply to Join New Jersey Sports Betting Picture

The post Another Wave of Casinos Apply to Join New Jersey Sports Betting Picture appeared first on SportsHandle.
Wary of getting stuck on the sidelines for football season’s kickoff, five new applications arrived on Monday for a New Jersey sports betting license.
According to the Associated Press, the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) received two applications for brick-and-mortar licenses and three for mobile sports wagering before a Monday deadline. DGE Director David Rebuck previously announced a deadline in connection with football season to allow state regulators enough time to evaluate applications.
While the DGE did not identify the applicants, CDC Gaming Reports has learned that the applications came from Caesars Entertainment — to offer retail wagering at Harrah’s and Bally’s in Atlantic City. In addition, Ceasars applied for licensed to offer mobile sports wagering at all three of its Atlantic City properties, the other being Caesars Atlantic City, which would be “serviced” by the adjacent Bally’s. The other identified applicant is Golden Nugget, which applied for both retail and mobile wagering.
New Jersey Sports Betting Scene Set to Add Ceasars Entertainment Properties, Golden Nugget Atlantic City, All Looking to Get Up and Running Before Football Season
nj sportsbook at harrahs and other caesars properties for atlantic city new jersey sports betting
The remaining applicants likely came from a pool of Hard Rock Atlantic City (seeking to partner in some way with bet365), Tropicana, Resorts Casino or Freehold Raceway.
“I fully expect that by Aug. 1 we will see additional properties up and running,” Rebuck said.
The application fee for the sports wagering certificate is $100,000 and there’s a five-digit difference in tax rate on sports wagering revenue: revenue derived from in-person wagering is taxed by the state at 8.5 percent while mobile wagering faces a 13 percent tax.
We know a bit about the Golden Nugget’s sports betting plans. Shortly before the Supreme Court struck down the federal law allowing this sports betting land rush, Churchill Downs Incorporated and Golden Nugget Atlantic City announced a partnership to offer sports betting and online gaming markets.
Potential licensees yet to apply will not entirely miss the boat for the college football and NFL seasons: the DGE will just not make any promise to give a rubber stamp before kickoff or any week in particular.
So far in NJ sports betting, Monmouth Park and Ocean Resort Casino have sportsbooks up and running with operations managed by William Hill; also the Borgata, owned and operated by MGM, went live on June 14 like Monmouth Park. And this past Saturday, Meadowlands Racetrack in northern New Jersey cut a ribbon, introducing the first FanDuel Sportsbook.
[Also See: Odds Shift in Race for Operator Dominance in Legal U.S. Sports Betting Market]
Revenue for operators and the state so far has been pretty good. Through just 17 days of operations in June Monmouth and Borgata plus three days at Ocean, the total handle registered $16.4 million with a $3.5M win by the books (on a cash basis that counts futures wagers as revenue at the time of the wager), with $293,000 revenue yielded by the state. The FanDuel Sportsbook at Meadowlands, pricing controversy aside at its debut, saw over $1 million in wagers in its first weekend.
So far no facility has rolled out mobile wagering, but that is expected to happen in the coming days.
The post Another Wave of Casinos Apply to Join New Jersey Sports Betting Picture appeared first on SportsHandle.