Online sports betting

Missouri sports betting initiative won’t be most expensive in history, but the numbers are already stunning

Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel continue to dump dollars into campaigns for and against legal sports betting in Missouri.
The Missouri campaigns won’t be the priciest in history, or even for a sports betting initiative. But the totals are striking for a state that ranks 18th in population, with 6.2 million residents.

As of Friday (4 October), proponents and opponents had staked campaigns with more than $35m (£26.6m/€31.9m), according to the Missouri Ethics Commission website. Advertisements are flooding airwaves and mailboxes ahead of the 5 November election. To put that figure in perspective, a total of $32.7m was spent on eight proposed amendments or propositions in 2018, according to Ballotpedia.

The title for the most expensive initiative belongs to California, the biggest US state. In 2022, proponents and opponents spent more than $450m on two sports betting proposals. The ultimate result was that both failed spectacularly.

Caesars contribution totals $10.9m so..

4 days ago

State of the Union: MA sends cease-and-desist to Bovada, NCAA not sure betting bans work

Welcome to iGB's State of the Union, a look at the biggest North American sports betting stories we've covered over the week and briefs on others we found interesting.
Massachusetts wants Bovada gone
The state of Massachusetts became the latest this week to send a cease-and-desist letter to offshore operator Bovada. The company is not licensed, but is offering online casino, pari-mutuel wagering and sports betting in the Bay State. The attorney-general’s office on Thursday (3 October) sent a letter that reads in part:

It is illegal in Massachusetts to engage in commercial gambling except where expressly
authorized by the Commonwealth. Mass. G.L. c. 4, sec. 7 (definition of “illegal gaming”); G.L.
c. 23K. Bovada offers an online casino that includes among its games slots, blackjack, roulette,
baccarat, and poker, without any license issued by the Commission under Mass. G.L. c. 23K.

Moreover, Mass. G.L. c. 23N, § 5(a) prohibits engagement in “any activity in connection with
..

4 days ago

Kentucky sports betting handle tops $2.39bn in first year

Players in Kentucky spent $2.39bn (£1.81bn/€2.17bn) betting on sports during the state's first year of regulation, while adjusted gross revenue in the Bluegrass State reached $272m.
Kentucky launched legal retail sports betting on 7 September 2023, with online wagering going live three weeks later. State regulator, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, has now published figures for the 12 months to the end of August.

Players in Kentucky favoured online betting, with total spend over the internet at $2.3bn in year one. In contrast, retail sportsbook attracted $87.1m in wagers during the 12-month period.

Revenue-wise, online betting generated $264.3m and retail wagering $7.8m. Figures related to adjusted gross revenue, which is revenue after player winnings and federal excise tax.

On the subject of tax, Kentucky collected $37.7m from online sports wagering and $756,517 retail betting. As for hold, the state’s total in year one was 9.28%, with online at 11.5% and retail 8.91%.

Fa..

October 3, 2024

Jontay Porter co-conspirator pleads guilty

Former professional poker player Long Phi Pham, who conspired with ex-NBA player Jontay Porter and two others in a sports betting scam, on Wednesday (2 October) agreed to plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Pham appeared in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He was released on a bond of $750,000 (£571,450/ €680,062) and will be sentenced 25 April 2025. Pham, Jontay Porter and two others were set to win more than $1m total after the Toronto Raptors player agreed to remove himself early from two games earlier this year. But DraftKings flagged the outsized player-prop bets, and an investigation ensued.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver in April banned Porter for life. Three months later, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July and is awaiting sentencing. Federal prosecutors recommended a sentence of 41-51 months in jail. Porter was released on $250,000 bond and his sentencing is set for 18 December.

Porter’s brother, ..

October 3, 2024

FanDuel holds off DraftKings challenge to lead Ohio betting market in August

Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel remained the frontrunner in the Ohio sports betting market in August – a month in which the Buckeye State saw revenue drop to a calendar year-low
According to the Ohio Casino Control Commission report that dropped on Tuesday (1 October), total player spend in Ohio for August was $547.9m (£417.6m/€496.2m). This is 44.6% ahead of last year and 14.9% more than July of this year.

Consumers wagered $539.9m on sports online during the month, while a further $13.0m was bet at retail sportsbooks.

In terms of taxable revenue, this amounted to $48.8m, the lowest monthly total so far for 2024. The August figure was 19.6% more than the same month last year but 8.8% behind July’s $55.3m haul.

Online sports betting generated $46.6m in revenue, while retail sportsbooks contributed $2.0m to the monthly total. Total taxable revenue for the year-to-date in Ohio stands at $541.5m.

As for hold, this hit 8.91% for the state as a whole in August. Online hold was 8.63%..

October 2, 2024

More BetMGM betting violations revealed in Massachusetts

An external audit commissioned by BetMGM in Massachusetts revealed multiple potential violations of state wagering regulations. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) decided on Wednesday (2 October) to handle the newly found violations and two existing ones in a single adjudicatory hearing.
After BetMGM allowed banned prop bets on college football games and professional soccer matches, the operator hired Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) to audit its books. That company found additional potential “non-compliant” bets, including:

Forty-one more college-player props on college football;
Thirteen college-player props on college basketball;
Twelve college-player props on two women’s Elite Eight college basketball games on 1 April 2024; and
One hundred-and-six bets placed between 8 June 2024 and 17 June 2024 on Glory Kickboxing events.

College-player prop bets are prohibited in Massachusetts. And Glory Kickboxing is not an approved betting market. MGC staff revealed the add..

October 2, 2024

Jaguars’ ex-employee sues FanDuel, others in hopes of reversal of fortune

A former NFL Jacksonville Jaguars employee who embezzled $22m to bet on sports is now suing FanDuel, his platform of choice, for $250m (£188.4m/ €226.4m). Amit Patel claims the company took advantage of his blooming addiction.
Patel, who is serving a six-and-a-half-year term at the Williamsburg Federal Correctional Institute Satellite Camp in South Carolina, filed his lawsuit against Boyd Gaming, FanDuel, Flutter and Fox Corp in federal court in New York on Tuesday (1 October).

He contends that not only did FanDuel employees know he was an NFL employee and should be excluded from betting, but also that the company ignored its own internal controls. Sports betting companies have internal controls and house rules that should guide them in dealing with bettors who may display signs of problem gambling.

In the lawsuit, Patel’s lawyer argues that “defendants knew and/or took intentional steps to avoid knowing that the money gambled by the plaintiff was stolen or otherwise not from a leg..

October 2, 2024

US August revenue round-up: Sports betting in Virginia, Colorado and Rhode Island

Rounding up some of the latest monthly sports betting results in the US, iGB take a closer look at how the markets in Virginia, Colorado and Rhode Island performed during August.
Virginia handle rockets 30.6% in August
Starting in Virginia, monthly handle in Old Dominion hit $416.7m (£313.8m/€376.6m). This is 30.6% more than August last year and 10.4% ahead of July of this year.

Figures from the Virginia Lottery show players spent $414.8m betting online and $1.9m at retail sportsbooks inside casino.

Players won $376.5m, while the Lottery accounted for $6,057 in promotions and bonuses and $5.2m in other deductions. As such, adjusted gross revenue for August amounted to $35.0m, up 24.1% year-on-year but 10.7% lower than July.

Online betting accounted for $34.6m of total revenue in August, with the other $415,139 coming from retail sportsbooks. Overall operator hold percentage for the month stood at 9.63%.

The Virginia Lottery does not publish a breakdown of individual operators. Howe..

October 2, 2024

Sweden channelisation rate at 86% according to Spelinspektionen report

Sweden gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has placed the country’s online channelisation rate at 86%; higher than operator estimates and some way above the previous year’s figure.
Detailed in a new report, the Sweden channelisation rate applies to the online gambling market in 2023.

The latest rate surpasses the 77% Spelinspektionen reported for 2022. It is also above forecasts from several operators local including Aktiebolaget Trav och Galopp, which in March estimated a rate of between 69% and 82%.

Unlicensed turnover hits SEK2.5bn
The regulator estimates black market sites generated SEK2.5bn (£183.5m/€220.2m/$243.3m) in turnover in 2023, compared to SEK17.3bn for licensed operators.

However, estimates are based on the assumption that players are wagering the same amount per visit across both unlicensed and licensed operators, which the regulator itself said may not be the case.

The regulator used several methods to come up with the channelisation rate, with 86% representing t..

October 1, 2024

Pete Rose bet on his own team. But he also embodied baseball for generations. That’s worth remembering

Baseball legend Pete Rose died on Monday (30 September). But you already know that. And if you're like me and grew up watching Rose play, you're left with a host of complicated feelings.
Since that fateful day 35 years ago, when Pete Rose accepted a spot on baseball’s “permanently ineligible” list, his legacy has been fraught. Unquestionably one of the best ballplayers who ever lived, Rose broke sports’ cardinal rule. He bet on baseball and, not only that, on his own team.

Rose died in his home on Monday of causes yet unknown, a spokesperson for the Clark County office of the coroner/medical examiner in Nevada told CNN. He was 83.

On 23 August 1989, then-Major League Baseball commissioner A Bartlett Giamatti banned Rose from the game. Forever. Rose didn’t think it would stick. But Giamatti died of a heart attack just a week after penalising Rose. Since then, no other MLB commissioner has seriously considered reversing the ban, which means Rose could very well be the best..

October 1, 2024

A look at all DraftKings regulatory penalties this year

The online gambling giant has now been hit with over $300,000 in penalties across four states
DraftKings keeps rolling the dice with various authorities, from state regulators to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The result? The online gambling operator is repeatedly crapping out.

Casino Reports counts four instances in this year alone in which DraftKings has been hit with fines by regulators. Included is a pair of six-figure wallops.

Here they are, in order from largest to smallest:

X’d out
Last week, the SEC hit DraftKings with a $200,000 (£149,251/€178,756) fine over the company’s public relations team’s posts on the X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn accounts of founder and CEO Jason Robins on 2 July.

The posts in question stated that DraftKings was experiencing “really strong growth” in states where it was operating.

The problem? According to the SEC, those posts violated Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act and Regulation FD. In short, the company was telling tale..

October 1, 2024

Not much to like about SAFE Bet Act, say industry insiders and addiction advocates

It turns out that no one – not even problem and responsible gambling advocates – are embracing the SAFE Bet Act, unveiled at a press conference earlier this month by US Representative Paul Tonko and Senator Richard Blumenthal. It's already been publicly called “obnoxious” and “insulting”.
The SAFE Bet Act attempts to reverse the 2018 Supreme Court decision to make legal sports betting a states’ rights issue. It does not yet have a bill number and has not been filed. UCLA clinical professor of psychology Dr Tim Fong said the current version of the bill would “do more harm than good”.

Jeff Ifrah, a gaming lawyer and a founding member of iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA), told iGB that the bill is a lot to process because “the first suggestion out of the gate [is] to include an unconstitutional registration requirement”. He also said the bill sponsors appear to be trying to “fill some sort of need that doesn’t exist”.

There is much not to like about SAFE Bet Act, say t..

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Tag: Online sports betting