SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
Circa Sports To Enter Illinois Via New American Place In Waukegan
Circa Sports and Full House Resorts announced an agreement Monday in which the Las Vegas-based sportsbook will enter Illinois for sports betting via the New American Place casino that will be built in Waukegan near the Wisconsin border.
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Sources: Despite Rumors To The Contrary, WynnBET Is Not For Sale
Back in January, rumors surfaced that WynnBET, the interactive arm of Wynn Resorts, was on the market for roughly $500 million, a deep discount compared to the $3 billion valuation it had received a year earlier.
This rumor — floated by the New York Post — came on the heels of an earnings call in November that featured then-CEO Matt Maddox saying of the online sportsbook landscape, “The market is really not sustainable right now. Competitors are spending too much to get customers. And the economics are just not something that we’re going to participate in.”
Well, much like Mark Twain’s death, rumors of WynnBET’s impending sale seem to be greatly exaggerated, at least according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.
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TVG ‘Service Interruptions’ On Kentucky Derby Day Business As Usual For Horse Racing
There are numerous traditions associated with the Kentucky Derby — mint juleps, extravagant hats, “My Old Kentucky Home,” and more. But for those who wager online on the first Saturday in May, another tradition is quite reliable: Get your bets in early, because at least one of the horse betting sites will crash.
On Saturday, it was TVG’s turn. The parimutuel betting operator, part of the FanDuel Group, was down or malfunctioning for two to three hours ahead of the Kentucky Derby, preventing many from getting their bets in for the big race.
The outage led to a flood of complaints and responses on social media, but this is not unfamiliar ground for TVG or any large advance-deposit wagering entity, really.
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‘It’s Your Sportsbook Operator On Line One’
Sportsbooks land countless new betting accounts via promotions during key times such as March Madness or just before the start of football season — only to see many accounts of casual gamblers go dormant after the initial wave.
It’s a familiar question: How can those companies revive some of those accounts?
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Chris Andrews: Pittsburgher Turned Nevadan Turned Sports Betting Hall Of Famer
It all started for Chris Andrews in fifth grade at Atlantic Avenue School in Pittsburgh’s Forest Hills suburb, taking bets on parlay cards with two cousins who would go on to become professional bookmakers themselves.
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California Tribes Won’t Try For Mobile Proposal On 2022 Ballot
And then there were two.
At the start of this year, the potential existed for as many as four sports betting initiatives to land on the 2022 California ballot. But on Monday, the three tribes backing a mobile wagering proposal said they would turn their efforts toward killing a commercial initiative rather than try for the 2022 ballot. According to a spokesman, the tribes will continue to collect signatures while earmarking $100 million to “kill” an initiative backed by seven commercial operators.
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