The Early Line: Sportsbooks Rein In 'Under' Props After Porter Scandal

TCL will be offering a roundup of recent US gambling news called The Early Line every Monday.

• Sportsbooks to rein in ‘under’ props for NBA | In the wake of the Jontay Porter scandal, ESPN reports that major US sportsbooks will no longer take bets on “unders” on player props if an NBA player is on a two-way or 10-day contract. Porter was infamously banned from the league and has pleaded guilty for his role in conspiring to make sure the under hit on his player props during games.
  Reading the line: Some action was needed after the Porter debacle. Sportsbooks probably could have gone the extra step of not taking bets on these types of players at all, but this at least stops this specific form of betting manipulation. It will be interesting to see if there’s momentum to take similar actions in other pro or college sports, even if there’s not necessarily a great equivalents outside of the NBA. (Minor-league callups in baseball are one comp, however.) There is, of course, nothing stopping offshore sportsbooks or fantasy apps from taking this kind of action on their platforms, if they’re willing to trade it.

• Enter FanDuel Sports Network | The group of 16 regional sports networks (RSNs) formerly carrying the Bally brand are now carrying the name of one of the top US sportsbooks as of today. In addition to the name on the networks, FanDuel will integrate into pro sports broadcasts and content via the relationship. You’ll also see some FanDuel TV programming syndicated here. More from Mike Raffensperger, president of FanDuel for sports: “Partnering with Diamond provides us an opportunity to put the FanDuel brand at the intersection of the nation’s largest group of regional sports networks. A large cohort of FanDuel customers are devoted RSN viewers and this agreement allows us to further cement the FanDuel brand with sports fans and provides a unique vehicle to reward our users.”
  Reading the line: Yes, the old Bally Sports Networks were named after a casino and sports betting brand. But some of the chatter after the announcement took issue with slapping the FanDuel brand on the RSNs and creating a further incursion of sports betting on sports itself. (Bally is more known for its regional casinos than as a sportsbook.) While the move will solidify FanDuel’s brand in the US, it also poses the danger of creating more concerns about the ubiquity of gambling in sports.

• ESPN Bet data | The Monday Earnings + More newsletter detailed how some analysts are raising concerns about the start of football season for Penn Entertainment and ESPN Bet. September’s numbers aren’t looking particularly great, per analysts. More from E+M: The poor performance has occurred against a backdrop of an interactive operation apparently in turmoil with further layoffs last month and after an investor presentation at the start of G2E, which sources suggested was not well received by investors even if the buy side (publically) remained positive. “They haven’t learned anything,” suggested one investment insider of the Penn management team.
  Reading the line: In Friday’s Cashout (for paid subscribers), I came to a similar conclusion based on publicly available data from September. Despite marketing efforts from ESPN, there simply aren’t meaningfully more people betting at ESPN Bet, nor are they generating meaningfully more revenue. If things don’t change during football season, it will be interesting to see how much runway Penn and its leadership gets.

  

• Does sweepstakes have a California problem? | As the sweepstakes sportsbook and casino industry gets more attention, shots have been fired in California. Tribes have said they are setting out to try to push the industry out of the state (along with real-money fantasy sports); webinar from last week here:

  Another webinar on the subject — this time with Jeremy Kudon, President of the Sports Betting Alliance — is set for this week.
  Reading the line: Losing the largest state would be a blow to those operators; if you want to learn more about the industry, here’s a recent post from TCL. Whether the tribes could push sweepstakes out of the state remains to be seen. There’s certainly a debate that could be had in a lot of states on whether it runs afoul of gambling laws or is a legal sweepstakes. While some states have decided on the former, how California’s attorney general or the courts might view the matter is an open question. And whether California may shut down the industry is almost beside the point; there’s now a pretty loud PR effort against the industry that isn’t good for business.

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