SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
From PASPA To Present: An Oral History Of The U.S. Sports Betting Gold Rush
The fastest legal expansion of gambling in U.S. history, allowing sports betting both online and in the flesh in nearly three dozen states over a five-year period coinciding with a global pandemic, has left precious little time for reflection.
Colorado’s launch of mobile sportsbooks in May 2020 proved that even if the world is left with little more than table tennis and Korean baseball, people will bet, and some will even stay up to watch. The world kept turning, and expansion may even have been accelerated by the rapid spread of the respiratory virus. The handle and revenue numbers have been staggering and the pace relentless.
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‘You Can’t Just Give Out Tom Brady’s Personal Information’
When five NFL players in April were suspended for violating league rules by their gambling, the fact that they were identified through the system set in place by the wagering industry could be considered a win.
Two of the players weren’t breaking the law simply by gambling — not in Maryland or Michigan or Virginia — and all were eligible to create sportsbook accounts. It is legal, even for professional athletes, to wager in all three U.S. states, as well as to play iCasino in Michigan.
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Caesars First To Sign Deal For Digital Sports Betting In Maine
Caesars Sportsbook has signed a term sheet with three Maine tribes and is the first national operator to gain digital sports betting market access in the state, Sports Handle has learned.
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Sources: Fanatics Enters Advanced Talks With PointsBet On Transformative U.S. Deal
As one of the nation’s largest sports betting conferences concluded in the wee hours of Friday morning, Fanatics moved closer to inking a transformative deal that could have lasting implications for the upstart sportsbook.
Fanatics Sportsbook has entered advanced negotiations with PointsBet, Sports Handle has learned, on a transaction that would include the Australian-based operator’s innovative “PointsBetting” apparatus. While it is unclear if the two sides will reach a deal by Sunday’s fifth anniversary of PASPA, a deal could be announced as early as next week, two high-level industry sources told Sports Handle late Thursday. A third source would be surprised if there isn’t “quite a bit of paper” around the deal by then.
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Gambling Company Executives Bullish On Future Of Online Casino
With the fifth anniversary of PASPA’s overturning mere days away, three of the leading executives in the sports betting industry took to the stage at SBC Summit North America in Secaucus, New Jersey, this week for a discussion about … the future of online casinos.
Adam Greenblatt, the CEO of BetMGM, Christian Genetski, the president of FanDuel, and Richard Schwartz, the CEO of Rush Street Interactive, were, to a man, bullish on the future of iCasino, despite it currently only being legal in six states (New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia, and Delaware.)
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