SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
California Poll Shows Heavy Support For Operators’ Sports Betting Initiative
Results of a summer survey investigating support of the latest sports betting initiative in California shows broad — if partisan — support for the “California Solutions to Homelessness and Mental Health Support Act,” which is backed by a group of seven big-time wagering or sports companies.
According to the David Binder Research poll, 62% of voters polled July 14-22 said they would support the initiative, while 25% said they would oppose it. The rest are undecided. In California, an initiative needs only a simple majority to pass.
Full story here.
Underdog Fantasy Seeks To Upend The Sportsbook Industry
Jeremy Levine founded StarStreet, a daily fantasy site that was quickly gobbled up by DraftKings and then put out to pasture. Levine then founded a second daily fantasy site — DRAFT — and that was eventually purchased by Paddy Power Betfair, which then bought FanDuel, which then merged DRAFT into Fanduel before eventually taking it out behind the woodshed.
But Levine wasn’t done yet, launching Underdog Fantasy in February 2020 with much of the same team that first launched DRAFT. And Underdog took off this year, with Best Ball tournaments leading the charge.
Full story here.
DraftKings Submits $20 Billion Proposal To Acquire UK-Based Entain
DraftKings submitted a cash-and-stock proposal to acquire UK-based Entain plc, the board of Entain confirmed on Tuesday.
While the Entain board confirmed that the proposal includes a combination of DraftKings stock and cash, Entain did not disclose financial terms of the proposal. According to CNBC, which first reported the news on Tuesday morning, it’s a $20 billion proposal from DraftKings for the UK gambling conglomerate.
The news comes after Entain rejected an all-stock acquisition attempt from MGM Resorts in January that valued the company at $11 billion. Entain, which owns a 50% stake in BetMGM, a sports betting and online gaming joint venture with MGM Resorts, said in January that the offer “significantly undervalue[d] the Company and its prospects.”
Full story here.
Flutter’s Limiting Under-25 Bettors In The UK And Ireland. Could That Happen Here?
I’m embarrassed to say there was a little bit of a Martingale involved, but know this: I went on full tilt the other day playing online casino games — which I usually only play for promo money and the like — and ended up losing a little more than 1% of my sports betting and DFS bankroll.
Ruinous? Hardly. But today, some 72 hours later, it’s still ticking me off. Not that I lost; that I can handle. It’s how I lost.
Full story here.
Michigan Bettor Collects $133K On Failed 16-Team Parlay, Despite Crushing Lions Loss
A sports bettor who needed the Detroit Lions to defeat the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football to hit a mammoth 16-team parlay wound up cashing out the bet after all.
After nailing the first 15 legs of the massive parlay, the Michigan bettor stood to collect $726,959 on the $25 risk-free bet had the Lions prevailed on Monday night at Lambeau Field. As a token of goodwill, BetMGM decided to reward the bettor with a pre-tax payout of $133,000. BetMGM publicized the parlay on Monday after the Ravens rallied to defeat the Chiefs 36-35 on Sunday Night Football.
Full story here.
Some Words Of Caution As Sports Media Shoves All In On Sports Betting
What only four years ago was taboo for most of mainstream sports media, or was relegated to coded language and Off Broadway programming, is now so integral to sports discourse that major players must learn to speak the language — without delay.
That’s the essence of the “embarrassing” social media admission made on Tuesday by ESPN personality Sarah Spain, co-host of the national radio show Spain and Fitz, a SportsCenter reporter, and columnist for espnW. A fixture on ESPN Radio since 2015 with a handful of co-pilots, Spain also announced that she had joined PointsBet Sportsbook’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, which is chaired by former golf pro and broadcaster Notah Begay.
Full story here.
