The Early Line: Jackpot + 7-Eleven; College Betting Scandal?
TCL offers a roundup of recent US gambling news called The Early Line every Monday. PROGRAMMING NOTE: This will likely be the only newsletter of the holiday week, other than Friday’s post for paid subscribers.
The latest for lotteries and online sales | Online lottery courier Jackpot.com did a deal to partner with 7-Eleven. From the presser: “As part of the collaboration, 7-Eleven customers in Ohio and Massachusetts will be able to sign up and play lottery games and scratchers on the Jackpot.com app or website. The program will initially be launched in over 600 7-Eleven and Speedway stores in Ohio and Massachusetts.”
Reading the line: Lotteries heading online has been a quieter and slower development than other forms of gambling. But lottery couriers (aka being able to buy lottery tickets online) are a growing vertical; look no further than DraftKings’ acquisition of Jackpocket. Couriers like Jackpot allow people to buy draw tickets (Powerball, Mega Millions, etc.) and sometimes scratch tickets. Some state lotteries have online games that are akin to online casinos. As I wrote last week, gambling’s future should be online more and more; lottery is no exception.
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A point-shaving scandal? | There have been gambling scandals in the US since the start of expanded sports betting, the biggest being Jontay Porter manipulating his own stats in the NBA. But with a current FBI investigation into former Temple men’s basketball player Hysier Miller, we might have a full-blown college sports scandal on our hands.
Reading the line: Given how quickly things changed with the advent of sports betting in the US, I’d say it’s amazing that the number of major scandals/suspensions has been relatively small. This is still just an investigation, but if it turns out we have game manipulation/point shaving at the top level of college basketball, it’s going to have repercussions. The NCAA is already making some headway in its campaign to limit player prop bets; it would like to see college betting banned entirely. And a scandal at the college level would definitely be one way to get policymakers taking a closer look at the entire sports betting industry.
October sports betting numbers, at a glance | I wrote about market share and revenue numbers in Friday’s Cashout (paywalled).
Reading the line: Top-line takeaways: If you squint you might be able to see progress for ESPN Bet. You can start to make an argument that Fanatics is fourth in the US sports betting industry. And the October revenue numbers are about as bad as advertised for the sportsbooks.
Quick hitters
Vixio has a guide to the sweepstakes industry.
FanDuel parent company Flutter nears a market cap of $50 billion.
Delaware North has been making a series of moves to bolster its online gambling business. The latest is tapping Nuvei to power payment processing.
The idea of sports betting kiosks at restaurants in Massachusetts gets a negative review.
Casino workers in Atlantic City demonstrate against smoking at casinos.
Oregon may get a new casino off of tribal land.
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