It’s Friday on SBC Americas so once more our colleagues over at SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
Hard Rock Has New Look, Flexes Muscles And Parlays As Florida Waits
As those in Indian Country and many other locales across the sports betting landscape anxiously await the next moves from Florida’s Seminole Tribe or the pair of parimutuels that sued the federal government over the tribe’s monopoly on digital wagering, Hard Rock rolled out a new look and a new way to play this week.
Hard Rock, owned by the Seminole Tribe, relaunched its Hard Rock Sportsbook on Monday as Hard Rock Bet in Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia, with New Jersey’s changeover scheduled to happen later this summer. The company’s sportsbook was active for just over a month in Florida in late 2021.
Read the full story here
Connecticut Moves Closer To Inking Deal With New Sports Wagering Partner
When the New England Patriots open their season on Sept. 10 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Connecticut sportsbooks will go head-to-head with neighboring Massachusetts for the first time ever on the opening weekend of the NFL season.
By then, there is a strong likelihood that the Connecticut Lottery Corporation (CLC) will name a new online and retail sports betting partner. The lottery is in the process of selecting a winning bidder approximately two months after operators submitted proposals for a partnership with the CLC, which is seeking a new operator after Rush Street Interactive pulled out of a 10-year partnership with the state that began in 2021.
Read the full story here
Media Notebook: Kelce Brothers Sound Off On Fellow NFL Players Violating Betting Rules
We all know the phrase “suspension of disbelief.” For NFL stars Travis and Jason Kelce, the brothers who launched the highly popular New Heights podcast last year, the recent onslaught of news coming out of the league office has them expressing disbelief over suspensions.
The suspensions announced June 29 of four NFL players for violating the league’s sports gambling policy brought the total number of players penalized for these infractions to nine in 2023 alone. Younger Kelce brother Travis, the Kansas City Chiefs’ standout tight end, could barely find the words as he expressed exasperation with his peers last week on Episode 48 of New Heights.
Read the full story here
Ohio Has Become The Most Interesting State In The Sportsbook World
The most interesting state in the sportsbook world right now? It has to be Ohio.
If it was Gov. Mike DeWine speaking, in the parlance of a certain early-2000s advertising campaign, he might say, “We don’t always raise taxes, but when we do, we prefer it to be on sportsbook operators.”
Or if bet365’s CEO stepped in front of the camera: “We don’t always try to compete on U.S. soil, but when we do, we prefer it to be in Ohio.”
Read the full story here
Three New Operators Could Be Live In Arizona By Early 2024
Phoenix Rising FC, a second-level pro soccer team, is angling to become the first non-major league sports entity in the U.S. to offer sports betting. Representatives from the club, a member of the United Soccer League (USL), were among those in attendance on Monday’s Arizona Department of Gaming webinar that laid out the process for how potential applicants could vie for the state’s three remaining event wagering slots.
Read the full story here
Ontario IGaming Handle Reached $14 Billion CAD Last Quarter
Online casino and sports wagering handle in the Canadian province of Ontario totaled $14 billion CAD ($10.62 billion USD) for the period spanning April 1 to June 30, according to a release Thursday by iGaming Ontario.
The agency also provided full fiscal year 2022-23 figures dating from the launch of online wagering on April 4, 2022, through March 31, 2023. Total handle for that period was $35.6 billion CAD ($27.01 billion USD), with combined revenue spanning the disciplines of internet casino gaming, sports wagering, and poker totaling approximately $1.4 billion CAD ($1.06 billion USD).
Read the full story here
Why The World Series Of Poker Attracted Record Entries This Summer
For 35 of the first 36 years of its existence, the World Series of Poker Main Event — the $10,000 buy-in tournament considered the annual unofficial poker world championship — set a new record for entries.
In none of the next 16 years did the Main Event attract a record field size.
But in 2023, finally, that streak ended. The all-time high established in 2006 was exceeded.
Read the full story here
