SportsHandle: That was the week that was in US sports betting

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SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.

Nine Operators, Including “Super Bid,” Awarded NY Mobile Sports Betting Licenses

The New York Gaming Commission (NYGC) recommended the issuance of nine mobile sports wagering operator licenses on Monday, confirming that the industry’s largest names will likely gain entry into the market when the state intends to launch online sports betting early next year.

Of the nine winners, a “super bid” featuring industry heavyweights FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Bally Bet received conditional licenses from the commission at Monday’s meeting. Another consortium, led by sports betting B2B technology provider Kambi, also made the cut. The consortium consists of five operators: Rush Street Interactive, Caesars Entertainment, PointsBet, Wynn Resorts, and Genting, which owns Resorts World.

Full story here.

Winning Bidders Race To Establish Footing In NY As Mobile Sports Betting Gold Rush Begins

One day after the New York Gaming Commission awarded conditional mobile sports betting licenses to nine companies, top sportsbooks are already navigating through traffic at the speed of a hurried Manhattan cab driver in the race to dominate market share.

Expect the multi-billion-dollar companies to engage in an intense turf war for the New York gold mine. The partnership frenzy kicked off just hours after the commission’s historic announcement, when BetMGM announced Tuesday that it has secured a partnership with Madison Square Garden to become the official sports betting partner of the NBA’s New York Knicks and the NHL’s New York Rangers at the venue known traditionally as “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”

Full story here.

Knicks, Rangers, MSG Lock In Partnerships With BetMGM Sportsbook

The unsuccessful six-year legal battle fought by the NBA, NHL, and three other sports organizations from 2012-18 to try to prevent legal sports betting from reaching beyond Nevada borders is becoming more and more forgotten.

On Tuesday, the New York Knicks and Rangers announced a multi-year marketing partnership with BetMGM — with jointly-owned Madison Square Garden also part of the deal.

Full story here.

Entain Touts Powerful Tech Stack With DraftKings Courtship Behind Them

When a major company walks away from an acquisition attempt in excess of $20 billion, it is only natural for the party on the other side to feel somewhat slighted.

The scenario played out last month when DraftKings formally abandoned a $22 billion proposed acquisition of U.K.-based Entain, a transaction that would have created the world’s largest gaming company. DraftKings, the largest pure-play, vertically integrated sports betting operator in the U.S., withdrew its proposal even after both sides extended a negotiating window to further discuss a potential transaction.

Full story here.

America’s Sports Bettors Are Selling Themselves Short In The Odds Game

Numbers are a bit of a bugaboo for the average person, and when it comes to persons, I consider myself very average.

But I once came across some math trivia as a kid that blew my mind and, to this day, serves as a reminder to always try and understand those pesky Arabic numerals. 

Here’s the question: How long is a million seconds and how long is a billion seconds?

Full story here.

Fixed-Odds Horse Racing Details Still Need To Be Ironed Out In Colorado

In the second of three scheduled stakeholder discussions on the prospects of fixed-odds horse racing in Colorado, facilitated by the state’s Department of Revenue, the issue of how those bets would be handled and regulated – as sports wagers, as horse wagers, or in a hybrid system – was a main topic of discussion.

Most involved in Wednesday’s discussion, which was conducted via video conference, felt fixed-odds horse racing should be overseen by the state’s Division of Gaming, and not through the Division of Racing Events, where parimutuel race wagering is regulated. As the rationale goes, since fixed-odds horse wagers would be primarily (or entirely) taken by sportsbooks, they should be regulated by the organization that already governs sportsbooks.

Full story here.

Platform Provider Kambi Out To Make Inroads On Single-Game Parlays

It is the sports betting rage of the moment, a nationwide wave started by FanDuel that other operators have eagerly chosen to ride with various tweaks unique to their respective sportsbooks.

That wave gained critical mass in the spring when the NFL fully embraced legalized wagering with official partnerships, and has been unleashed in tidal fashion this fall. It helped fuel the first $5 billion monthly handle of the post-PASPA era in September and has retained enough strength that teasing a $6 billion monthly handle is not unrealistic.

Full story here.

Sports Betting’s Big Crypto Question

Last month, a revered U.S. publication ran a story bearing the headline, “Crypto-Averse Man Would Prefer Investing In Traditional Stock Market He Also Doesn’t Understand.”

“Call me old-fashioned, but I’d much rather trust my life savings with a more tried-and-true confusing and opaque system that can drastically increase or decrease in value according to forces that are way beyond my comprehension,” Fort Worth resident Tim Blankenship was quoted as saying. “I know crypto is supposed to be the big new disruptive thing, but this is my future retirement we’re talking about, and I’m not going to leave that up to some new thing I don’t grasp the first thing about when I can rest easy knowing that my money is tied up in some old thing I also don’t grasp the first thing about.”

Full story here.