Arizona awarded one of two available sports betting licenses to Circa Sports and the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, concluding a reallocation process the state began in June.
A Monday press release from the Arizona Department of Gaming announced the news that the Las Vegas-based sportsbook will expand its operation to seven states including:
- Colorado
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- Nevada
Circa Sports Director of Operations Jeff Benson confirmed on Twitter that the operator will not be live in Arizona for the upcoming football season.
Why Arizona chose Circa, San Juan Southern Paiute
The San Juan Southern Paiute previously partnered with Betway to offer sports wagering before the operator exited the U.S. market entirely last year. State law requires regulators to reserve half of the 20 available sports wagering licenses for Arizona tribes, with the other 10 going to professional sports franchises.
Arizona gaming regulators regularly review unissued licenses among that group and reopen the application process as necessary. ADG accepted license requests during a two-week period beginning June 26 for one tribal license and one professional franchise license. The release mentions only the tribal license issued to Circa via the San Juan Southern Paiute.
Legal sports betting began in Arizona in 2021. Total handle to date is $35.3bn, resulting in about $190.6m in tax revenue for the state, according to information gathered by the state.
Who is Circa Sports?
Circa is something of an anomaly in the new landscape of U.S. sports betting.
After the 2018 PASPA decision opened the doors to sports betting in all 50 states, tech-first corporate outfits like FanDuel and DraftKings launched in most every possible state soon after launch, gobbling up market share and creating the duopoly that still holds today in the state-by-state regulated OSB market.
Circa treads a different path, marketing itself as willing to book action other shops will not as one part of a strategy to welcome sharper bettors. It launched its own multimillion-dollar pro football pick’em and survivor contests to rival the Westgate Superbook’s SuperContest. Circa also opens college football lines each week earlier than anyone in the regulated market, shaping a reputation for market making in that area.
The operation began in June 2019 when owner Derek Stevens launched Circa Sports within the Golden Gate in downtown Las Vegas. Stevens opened the Circa Resort in late 2020 with a plan to capture the sports market, including the Stadium Swim venue.
“We are going to offer things to do with a lot of fun and excitement, no matter what your age is,” Stevens told the Associated Press at the time. “We are certainly going to have a bit of a focus on sports, water, sun, and it’s all themed around fun and high energy. We are focusing on a design that is consistent with downtown Las Vegas but all new.”
Expanding the national map
The company scaled its sportsbook operation outside Nevada in the coming years, including snagging an untethered Missouri sports betting license last year for $500,000 to compete against DraftKings and FanDuel.
“I love it,” Stevens told SBC Americas last year. “A handful of people asked me at the time, ‘Are you intimidated about going in against these two big companies?’ I said no, not really. I mean, what do we have to lose? No one expects us to win. The pressure’s not really on us, it’s on the other guys because no one expects us to get one.
“And if we do, then holy smokes, that’ll be a big upset.”
