New York’s Empire Resorts Joins Forces With Bet365 on Sports Betting

Empire Resorts, Inc., now an affiliate of bet365 Group Limited (bet365) and Resorts World Catskills today revealed a “strategic alliance” to join the rapidly expanding sports wagering business space in the U.S. by creating a physical and online sportsbook in New York State.

Sports wagering is not now legal in New York, however, rules and accompanying regulations are expected to come under close examination by New York State lawmakers in 2019, Democratic State Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow (89th District) told Sports Handle in an interview last week. Pretlow is the state lawmaker sponsoring enabling legislation that would legalize full-fledged sports betting in the state.

Resorts World Catskills in Kiamesha Lake, on the site of the former Concord Hotel, a “Borscht Belt” landmark, is New York’s newest and largest integrated commercial casino resort destination with closest proximity to Manhattan. Empire, as a bet365 affiliate company, is part of the world’s largest online sports bookmaker. The parties said in a media release that their deal 20-year agreement would become effective when permitted by applicable law.

 

Read more New York’s Empire Resorts Joins Forces With Bet365 on Sports Betting on SportsHandle.

MGM GVC Interactive Taps Sportradar As Exclusive Supplier of U.S. Sports Data

The post MGM GVC Interactive Taps Sportradar As Exclusive Supplier of U.S. Sports Data appeared first on SportsHandle.

Sports data provider Sportradar, currently the only data provider working directly with the NBA and NHL as a distributor of league data, announced Thursday a deal through which it will now be the exclusive betting data provider to MGM GVC Interactive LLC for certain leagues.

MGM GVC Interactive is a shared venture between British-controlled bookmaker GVC Holdings PLC, which owns the Ladbrokes Coral Group PLC gambling company, and MGM Resorts International.

 
 

Read more MGM GVC Interactive Taps Sportradar As Exclusive Supplier of U.S. Sports Data  on SportsHandle.

Why Smaller Sports League Want in on Legal Sports Betting

While the four major U.S. sports leagues wrestle with how to approach the rapidly expanding legal sports betting market in the states, a bevy of smaller leagues and sports organizations are quickly embracing the emerging market.

The reason various niche sports are seeking out deals with sportsbook operators, gaming companies and sports information providers is grounded in the desire to expand their sports through the increased fan engagement that sports wagering can stimulate.

The four big dogs — Major League Baseball, the National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League — have long known that gambling drives eyeballs, but as longtime opponents of legal sports betting, they are proceeding more cautiously in this new era. In fact, the leagues are calling for federal intervention on sports betting once again. But in any framework, legal sports betting is good for business and a potential lifeline for leagues fighting to stay afloat.

Breaking Down DraftKings’ Hire of Las Vegas Veteran Johnny Avello

The post Breaking Down DraftKings’ Hire of Las Vegas Veteran Johnny Avello appeared first on SportsHandle.

Wynn Resorts’ executive John Avello is joining DraftKings, the leading national Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) operation as it continues its foray into Nevada-style, single-team bookmaking, telling Sports Handle that the popular Las Vegas Strip bookmaker has joined their expanding operation.

Avello, who will remain in Las Vegas, the company said, is expected to be joined at DraftKings by Ed Malinowski, sports and racebook executive at Golden Entertainment. Malinoswki has resigned from that post.

Although it’s believed that Malinowski, with more than a decade in an executive role in the Southern Nevada sportsbook industry, will join Avello at DraftKings in a leadership role, he was unavailable to confirm his new post. A DraftKings spokesperson was unable to immediately confirm or deny the hiring of Malinowski.

 

Read more Breaking Down DraftKings’ Hire of Las Vegas Veteran Johnny Avello on SportsHandle.

Mississippi Sportsbooks Generate $9.8 Million Handle In First Month of Sports Betting

Licensed Mississippi sportsbooks generated $9.8 million in total handle during the state’s first full month of sports betting, Aug. 1-Sept. 3, according to Mississippi Gaming Commission executive director Allen Godfrey.

Following Delaware and New Jersey, the Magnolia State became the third to have properties accept legal wagers since the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was struck down in May. PASPA had banned every state but Nevada from allowing full-fledged sports wagering. Delaware’s three sportsbooks took in a  $8.2 million total wagers in its first full month (June 25-July 29) while New Jersey’s four sportsbooks (at the time) produced a handle of $40.6 million for its first full month (July 1-31).

Figures on the hold or respective handle at each property was not available Thursday, nor was tax revenue information, but Mississippi taxes its sportsbooks a total of 12 percent — 8 percent state and 4 percent local — which mirrors every other gaming tax in the state.

20 Sportsbooks Are Now Open for MS Sports Betting, As Magnolia State Reports First Month’s Handle

mississippi sports betting legal betting biloxi beau rivage
The Beau Rivage Resort & Casino(Beautiful Coast) in Biloxi

Both Delaware and New Jersey are using cash accounting systems, where futures bets are included in handle, while Mississippi is using an accrual system, like Nevada does, and futures bets are held out of the total.

Read the full post-Mississippi Sportsbooks Generate $9.8 Million Handle In First Month of Sports Betting on SportsHandle.

Breaking Down the William Hill-Eldorado Resorts US Sports Betting Partnership

The post Breaking Down the William Hill-Eldorado Resorts US Sports Betting Partnership appeared first on SportsHandle.

In a surprise announcement late Tuesday, William Hill and Eldorado Resorts jointly revealed they had reached a wide-ranging partnership agreement through which the British-controlled bookmaking giant would operate all the major regional casino company’s sportsbook operations in the U.S., and that Eldorado would take a 20 percent stake in William Hill’s U.S. operation, as well as a minor stake in the company’s worldwide operation.

Word of the deal was first reported by the British news outlet Sky News. Soon after the Sky News report, an official statement was released to the media.

William Hill and Eldorado are calling the agreement “a nationwide partnership for digital and land-based sports betting and online gaming in the United States.” William Hill now becomes Eldorado’s exclusive partner in the provision of digital and land-based sports betting services as well as online gaming. The online gaming element to the deal is apparently a new wrinkle in William Hill’s U.S. business model, which had previously focused strictly on sports wagering.

Wide-Ranging Partnership Between William Hill and Eldorado Resorts Puts Bookmaker Into 11 States for Mobile and Retail Sports Betting

FanDuel Group Receives License For West Virginia Sports Betting

The post FanDuel Group Receives License For West Virginia Sports Betting appeared first on SportsHandle.

The FanDuel Group has moved closer to opening up a sportsbook in a second state, as its management services provider interim license was granted on Friday by the West Virginia Lottery Commission, managing general counsel Danielle Boyd told Sports Handle.

In late June, FanDuel CEO Matt King announced a partnership between FanDuel and The Greenbrier Resort in Sulphur Springs, W.Va., which will have the DFS-turned-sports betting operator install a FanDuel Sportsbook at the resort.

The Greenbrier itself has not yet received its operator license, though. The Lottery Commission advised all five of its eligible licensees to submit a letter requesting the operator license with a $100,000 licensure fee, but so far The Hollywood Casino is the only one to have done so, receiving its operator license on Friday and becoming the first casino to claim one, Boyd confirmed.

FanDuel Sportsbook On Track For WV Sports Betting as William Hill And Penn National Gaming Teaming Up There, Too.

wv sports betting fanduel greenbrier fanduel sportsbook
At The Greenbrier Resort’s Casino Club.

Earlier this week we learned that the Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, W.Va. would become the first casino in the state to offer sports wagering.

“We had hoped everyone would launch at the same time and everyone would be up at the beginning of football season,” Boyd said in a Monday appearance on MetroNews’ “Sportsline” program, per MetroNews. “As we move forward, it appears that we’re going to have sort of a phased launch and it’s going to be a tiered approach. We’re just really excited to see that Charles Town will be ready to launch by Sept. 1.”

How long until Greenbrier’s FanDuel Sportsbook cuts a ribbon will debut is guesswork at this point, but certainly the property has to get its operator license first, which should shouldn’t take too much longer than it takes to write a $100,000 check.

FanDuel, now owned by Ireland-based bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair, began cutting its sports betting teeth at the Meadowlands Racetrack in northern New Jersey in mid-July. The sportsbook has not yet released a mobile app or web-based betting platform in New Jersey, while its rival and one-time merger partner DraftKings launched the first New Jersey mobile sportsbook on Monday, beating a host of others to the punch.

As in New Jersey, when the FanDuel sportsbook does go mobile in West Virginia, patrons will have the ability to register and deposit into accounts remotely, so long as they’re inside the state’s borders.

 

William Hill and Penn National Gaming.

Last Friday, bookmaker William Hill announced a big-time entry into Mississippi, while also teasing a partnership in West Virginia plus a much greater one that would put it all over the U.S. map.

While neither William Hill or the Wyomissing, Penn.-based Penn National Gaming (PNG) has yet confirmed a partnership to have William Hill running the sportsbook at the Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, multiple sources have indicated it’s a deal.

“We are now the early market leader in New Jersey where our mobile app will launch within weeks and we expect to be a market leader in Mississippi with these 11 casino agreements,” said William Hill CEO Philip Bowcock. “The team continues to engage in discussions that cover a further 14 states and they are doing a tremendous job.”

In light of the deal in West Virginia and Bowcock’s remarks, the most logical way to get to 14 is via PNG, which is in the process of acquiring Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., which adds Iowa, Louisiana and Colorado to PNG’s map.

The post FanDuel Group Receives License For West Virginia Sports Betting appeared first on SportsHandle.

Legal Sports Betting In The U.S.: The British are Coming! The British are Coming!

The post Legal Sports Betting In The U.S.: The British are Coming! The British are Coming! appeared first on SportsHandle.

Historians now say Paul Revere never said it, but currently, at least in the world of expanded legal sports betting, it’s certainly true. But, just why are British-controlled betting companies making their presence so widely felt in the new U.S. sports betting marketplace?

According to insiders and industry observers speaking to Sports Handle on the condition of anonymity, U.S. gambling companies lacked the experience or the personnel to handle what will be a huge undertaking. Even the largest U.S. casinos operators, despite the general feeling that PAPSA, the law limiting sports betting largely to Nevada, would be ruled unconstitutional, seem to have been caught somewhat off guard by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the New Jersey-led Murphy v NCAA.

Unlike this country, where bookmaking was regarded as shadow and largely illegal activity, in Britain and most of Europe, sports betting and bookmaking remain part of the societal fabric. It may take years for bookmaking, even as it becomes legal in state after state, to lose some of the social stigma associated with it.

The New Era of Legal Sports Betting: Las Vegas Is 10 Years Behind, Opening Pathway For British Operators

legal betting sites us british operators

As one industry insider told me, “How many people in the U.S. have trained for this career path? Anyone with bookmaking knowledge works for an illegal offshore, outside of that you have Vegas properties that are 10 years behind versus Europe.”

He also noted that “in-play” betting in the U.S. (often called “trading” in Europe), regarded as the major growth area of sports wagering, lags significantly behind Europe where trading floors operate as nerve centers at every bookmaking operation.

Only William Hill, the British-controlled bookmaker appeared ready to spring into action when the PAPSA decision came down in early May. However, William Hill, under the able and farsighted leadership of Joe Asher, is not a casino company in the U.S.  In Nevada and now in other jurisdictions, its business model generally calls for leasing casino space, remodeling the facility, sharing a portion of the profit and little of the risk with its landlord.

For this reason, the company was able to quickly move into Delaware where it already had the legal parlay card franchise through that state’s lottery, via its partnership with Scientific Games. In New Jersey, the company developed a close relationship with Monmouth Park, the thoroughbred track that bore all the expense and did all the heavy lifting that resulted in the PAPSA ruling. William Hill is also now operating in Atlantic City at the Ocean Resort Casino.

It seems the large U.S. casino titans readily gave lip service to the concept of being ready for sports betting. However, after the May ruling they apparently were forced to scramble to get their sports betting operations going. That resulted in new market entrants in non-Nevada states seeking out European groups to access proven wagering platforms, experienced computer programmers, and even some executives to manage the operation.

In new sports betting states that now have legal, real-money online casino games and online sports betting such as New Jersey, the casino giants were already using European-controlled companies’ software to operate online, so it made sense to further expand these kinds of relationships to include sports betting. The major casino companies remain on a mission to aggregate all of their customers’ betting activity, that now includes or will include sports betting, onto one online platform for advanced player tracking and subsequent marketing.

This is at the core of this new “British Invasion.”

The betting platforms currently used in Nevada apparently were unable to fill the needs of the major gaming companies, so they were compelled to look abroad.

Euro Operators Ready

paddy power betfair fanduel group merger and will combines us sports betting operations

As another industry insider explained, “The Euro operators are offering a turnkey sportsbook solution – platform, data, risk. The US brick-and-mortar locations – be it casinos or racetracks – have limited expertise in sports betting, such that a turn key solution is attractive to them. Many are signing short term deals though, or deals with an out clause, such that as they gain experience, they can add their own layers of risk management, data, personalization, etc.”  

He continued, “The Euro guys are ready whereas some of the home grown guys are not, with exception of William Hill.” He also relayed that Scientific Games (Las Vegas-based but with a major European presence) is still working on their U.S. version of their Open Bet” platform. IGT (now headquartered in London instead of Reno) still has programming issues. “So by process of elimination, the Euro guys are winning a chunk of the business,” he said.

Sharing the sports betting risk for the U.S. casino giants may also be a major issue prompting them to join forces with the experienced now deep-pocketed European counterparts. The spate of mergers by British-controlled bookmakers such as Ladbrokes with Coral and GVC with Paddy Power and BetFair among others, have made these bookmaking entities stronger than ever before. This strength has allowed them to swoop in to quickly compete with William Hill, the company that did not consolidate with another firm, even though William Hill has had a U.S. operation far longer than anyone else.

Although many projections pegged the U.S. sports betting market in be in the many billions of dollars and perhaps the world’s largest in five to 10 years, many of the large U.S. casino companies may not have taken these figures seriously. Apparently, now they do and are moving swiftly to access the profits that may be available.

To do this, for most, means taking in an experienced partner, so expect the “British Invasion” to continue as more states open legal sports betting markets.

The British are already here.

[Also See: William Hill Penetrates Mississippi Sports Betting, Teases Much More]

The post Legal Sports Betting In The U.S.: The British are Coming! The British are Coming! appeared first on SportsHandle.