The Early Line: A Friend To Online Gambling In Ohio; Can Jake Paul Get Betr?
TCL offers a roundup of recent US gambling news called The Early Line every Monday.
A friendly state for online gambling? | An Ohio lawmaker is pushing a bill that would roll back the state’s tax on sports betting revenue from 20% to its original 10%. An online casino conversation starter is also on the way.
Reading the line: It would be good news for the industry if it can push a tax rate down. And even if it doesn’t pass, the narrative serves to stem the tide against states looking to increase taxes. And while online casino faces long odds in the short term, what the online gambling industry needs is to find champions; it appears to have found one in Sen. Niraj Antan.
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The irony of Jake Paul and betting | Not shockingly, there was a lot of betting interest in the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. Meanwhile, the sportsbook and fantasy parlay app co-founded by Paul — Betr — remains an also-ran.
Reading the line: There are few people in the world who have the juice of Paul right now. He got 60 million of us to watch a sparring match with an almost 60-year-old Tyson. He made $40 million from the bout. He’ll fight someone else eventually, and he’ll get a lot of people to pay hard-earned money to watch that, too. But for all of Paul’s success, that hasn’t translated to success in the gambling industry. Betr seems to remain entrenched in a tier behind major fantasy operators PrizePicks, Underdog and Sleeper. The sportsbook is currently in just two states, after quitting Massachusetts. Betr has done a great job creating a social media following, much like Paul has, but it’s also clear they’re not getting people to place bets in meaningful numbers.
Not all regulation is good regulation | Washington DC’s attorney general is investigating the lottery’s initial sports betting contract, which was, to put it nicely, a disaster. FanDuel replaced Intralot this year and: “In April, a FanDuel director sent D.C. officials and Bailey a performance recap, according to emails acquired through a FOIA request. The FanDuel app took $6 million in bets in its first seven days — more than GambetDC averaged in a month.”
Reading the line: Unfortunately, in the rollout of legal sports betting in the US, we have had some duds. No dud is bigger than DC, which allowed a subpar app to be its only city-wide option for online sports betting. While there has been good and bad policy around the country, there’s really no excuse for what DC did and how long they stuck with a terrible product. It’s a shame we still have monopolies in some places as well; opening up markets would likely be better for the bottom line of states as well as for consumers.
Quick hitters
A deep dive into the current state of sports betting from Rolling Stone.
A look at the early numbers for US sports betting in October (paywalled). Illinois September numbers are out, and they again show ESPN Bet struggling to gain market share.
Online casino revenue continues to rise in New Jersey.
Leading sweepstakes casino operator VGW appoints a new CFO.
A tribe in Texas wants online lottery offerings in the state to stop.
There is already a lot of chatter for and against sports betting in Minnesota ahead of the legislative session.
Kindbridge Behavioral Health partners with Mindway to help detect at-risk gamblers.
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