The Early Line: DraftKings Sportsbook+ Launches; MD, VA Online Casino Bills
TCL offers a roundup of recent US gambling news called The Early Line every Monday.
DraftKings launches subscription service in New York | DraftKings Sportsbook+ went live over the weekend, which gives NY users the opportunity to get boosted odds/payouts on parlays at a cost of $20 a month. DK is giving the first month away free with a promo code.
Reading the line: The opinions on this product from the gambling industry and beyond are all over the board, from brilliant to idiotic. I am leaning toward brilliant for the time being. For now, it’s a launch in a single state with a high tax rate. If it fails, who cares? If it does well — ie creating more revenue, engagement, etc. — you’ll probably see it in more states. People love parlays, and offering bigger payouts on parlays seems to be a dangling carrot that would work. More on this in tomorrow’s newsletter, The Current.
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Maryland, Virginia online casino effort ramps up | MD lawmakers are introducing a bill to legalize online casinos for a second straight year. Del. Vanessa Atterbeary will try again after an effort in 2024 came up short. Legislation would create several paths to being an operator in the state. There’s also a bill in Virginia.
Reading the line: Progress for online casino has been difficult to come by in recent years after a brief wave of success in state legislatures. It’s not clear yet if the Maryland effort will have more legs than it did last year, but you can only pass bills if you get them introduced in the first place. The industry will likely focus on lobbying for online casino in coming years as the realistic chances of passing new online sports betting bills continue to be limited moving forward.More treading water for ESPN Bet | Ohio recently released its sports betting numbers for November. The top-line number was a billion dollars in handle — that’s the second time the state has hit that mark. ESPN Bet accounted for $32 million in handle, putting it in seventh place among all Ohio sportsbooks. Its share of handle across all operators remained at 3.2% month over month. (ESPN Bet did come in sixth in revenue in the state at $3.4 million, and its share of revenue improved slightly MoM).
Reading the line: It’s the latest evidence that November was not a watershed moment for ESPN Bet, which has promised improved metrics with the launch of account-linking with the core ESPN app at the start of the month. I broke down ESPN Bet’s November in a recent post in The Cashout (paywalled). At some point, we’re going to have to see evidence that ESPN Bet can do more than what it’s delivered in the first year of operation after rebranding from Barstool Sportsbook. If we don’t see that evidence in the next year, there are going to be some hard questions to be asked and answered at Penn Entertainment, ESPN Bet’s parent company. More from Legal Sports Report on the full story of sports betting numbers in 2024, including ESPN Bet’s underperformance to date.
Layup: The alternative to sports betting
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Quick hitters
Missouri may launch legal sports betting faster than anyone expected.
New Hampshire lawmakers will consider raising the legal age for sports betting to 21.
The VSiN sports betting network will go live on SiriusXM on Jan. 17.
The Detroit Lions are the new favorites to win the Super Bowl after clinching the top seed in the NFC last night.
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