The Early Line: Legal Sports Betting Sets Records In Super Bowl
Kalshi files to offer wider range of prop bets with CFTC on Monday, adds betting on college basketball tournaments; PrizePicks, Bovada receive C&D's in Illinois
TCL offers a roundup of recent US gambling news with analysis called The Early Line every Monday.
Betting activity is up for Super Bowl | While some people were lamenting that the Chiefs-Eagles matchup wasn’t providing a ton of juice — most notably ticket resellers — it was not a problem in regulated sports betting. Here’s a roundup of some early data:
Geocomply: “GeoComply, a global leader in advanced anti-fraud and geolocation compliance technologies, has reported a 14% increase in active player accounts across its online sportsbook customers during Super Bowl weekend compared to Super Bowl weekend last year” … “Over Super Bowl weekend, GeoComply observed the creation of more than 724,400 new online wagering accounts across its customers in regulated states.”
FanDuel: “Super Bowl LIX also set records on FanDuel Sportsbook, as we saw over 16.6 million Super Bowl bets placed across nearly three million active users. … Customer activity peaked at nearly 70K bets per minute … Almost two million fans made a pick on Kick of Destiny 3, with over one million picking Eli who each will receive $10 in Bonus Bets.”
Reading the line: Those are some pretty impressive top-line numbers, given that we only added online betting in one state — North Carolina — since the last Super Bowl. All of this is in line with projections of around $1.5 billion in total bets on the game. And if we’re reading some early tea leaves, it might have been a good day for the sportsbooks, based on the returns from BetMGM. More from The Athletic (paywall) on that front.
Kalshi files to offer prop betting (CFTC) | Kalshi is getting into more prop betting, but it’s not 100% clear how far based on its latest filing with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Kalshi has self-certified the following sports offering: “Will <achievement> be obtained by <participant>?”
Here’s the language and an example of what Kalshi intends with this market: “<achievement> refers to a given sports achievement obtainable by more than one <participant>, and will include a specified year and/or other distinguishing information, e.g., “Team(s) making the 2025 National Basketball Association playoffs.” <achievement> does not refer to the winner of a regular individual game.
These markets could launch as soon as tomorrow.
At deadline for TCL, the “SEC men’s basketball tournament winner” was listed as launching tomorrow morning, as were markets for the college women’s basketball champion, college football champion, and winners of Wimbledon and the Argentina Open in tennis.
The new filing comes after Friday’s news that Kalshi filed to launch single-game markets (the equivalent of moneyline bets).
Reading the line: Despite self-certifying the single-game markets and saying they could launch the markets on Friday, Kalshi has not yet offered them on their platform. The new offering seemingly could allow them to offer a wide-range of prop bets, but it’s not clear how far they might push the envelope here. Pushing into more granular college sports betting in particular could become problematic; there are already active investigations into men’s college basketball and betting.
For all the talk of Kalshi disrupting the sports betting space (and don’t get me wrong, they definitely can), they only had $27 million in trades on the Super Bowl. If you sneezed during the game, FanDuel probably took $27 million in bets before you got a tissue (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration). There is a lot of room for Kalshi to grow on the sports product and customer acquisition. But it’s still kind of shocking you could bet in every state and this was the result.
I’ll catch you up on all of the developments in prediction markets later this week at The Event Horizon:
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Illinois attorney general sends cease-and desist orders to Bovada, PrizePicks | Reporting from Sports Betting Dime: “Just days before one of the largest sports betting events in the country, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul urged state residents to take caution when betting on the Super Bowl and announced two cease-and-desist notices to ‘alleged unlicensed sports wagering sites Bovada.com and PrizePicks.’ The Illinois Gaming Board issued the cease-and-desist notices to Bovada, an offshore gaming company based out of Curaçao, and PrizePicks, a daily fantasy sports operator based out of Atlanta, Georgia.”
Interestingly (or not?) the original statement is now returning a 404 error from the AG’s site.
PrizePicks told the gaming media it was planning to transition to a peer-to-peer game it runs in numerous other jurisdictions.
The C&D against Bovada continues a trend against offshore operators in a variety of states.
Reading the line: It had seemed like we had reached some equilibrium in the daily fantasy sports 2.0 space (aka fantasy pick’em or fantasy parlays). Getting mentioned in the same breath as Bovada is certainly some bad news for the industry, although it’s not clear if this will mean anything outside of Illinois. It’s also not clear what other DFS operators might do in Illinois; many of them can’t pivot to peer-to-peer games because they don’t offer them. Underdog, for instance, runs the p2p game but not the against-the-house game in Illinois. Larger operators like Dabble and Betr list Illinois as active states.
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Gambling news today
Not great news for New York online casino (City & State NY): From a Q&A with Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee Chair Carrie Woerner. “Q: What’s the status of legislation that would legalize online casino gambling in New York? Any chance of passing? A: I think in the Assembly we’ll be taking a look at it, but I would not think that we’re ready to take that step yet. There’s a lot to look at. I know it’s out there and under consideration and I’ll certainly take a hard look at it. We’ll see.”
Ohio regulator takes issue with Jake Paul’s Ferrari offer to Saquan Barkley (SBC Americas): “In the lead-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl, media and sports betting company Betr posted and subsequently deleted a video in which co-founder Jake Paul offered a Ferrari to Saquon Barkley if the Philadelphia Eagles running back won MVP in the game. … The Ohio Casino Control Commission’s (OCCC) General Counsel Andromeda Morrison told SBC Americas that after reviewing the video, the Commission determined that the advertisement was not in compliance with its sports betting regulations.”
Betr reported negative revenue in Ohio in December, so they probably want to avoid paying fines on their sports betting business, which has not gained much traction.
Maryland bill sponsor suggests cutting Cordish out of iGaming market (SBC Americas): “At a Maryland House Ways and Means Committee hearing discussing the potential legalization of online casino, the bill’s sponsor and committee chair appeared to float the idea of preventing existing in-state casino operator The Cordish Companies from taking part in iGaming.”
With the surge in sports betting, the risk of gambling addiction rises too (NPR): “The National Council on Problem Gambling reports that the risk of gambling addiction has increased since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting seven years ago. According to the council, the risk for gambling addiction in the U.S. rose by 30% between 2018 and 2021. Keith Whyte, the organization's former executive director, notes that there are several clear red flags that can help identify problem gambling. ‘If you become preoccupied with your gambling. If you start to lose control over the amount and time that you spend betting. Most importantly, if it's causing harm to you. It could be performance issues at work, arguments or lost time with your family,’ says Whyte.”
How sports betting in Colorado is helping preserve a precious resource (KDVR): “Since Colorado legalized sports betting five years ago, the state has collected over $100 million in taxes from casino profits. Most of that money is dedicated to preserving one of the state’s most important resources: water. With events like the Super Bowl, betting can turn out some big paychecks. In 2024 in Colorado, over $46 million was bet on the big game. This year, experts told FOX31’s Matt Mauro they expect it to be closer to $50 million.”
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