The Takeaway: Cease And Desists Should Expand Beyond Bovada

TCL will offer a take/analysis of something in the US gambling space in The Takeaway every Thursday.

It’s been a very bad few months for offshore sportsbook and online casino Bovada, which has been getting cease-and-desist letters in and/or pulling out of a number of US states.

The latest to join the growing list is Tennessee, which has asked Bovada to pull out (and fined them), while also encouraging people to withdraw their money from the site.

The rapid move to try to limit one offshore operator has produced results, which is why it shouldn’t stop there.

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Bovada is one big fish in a big pond

We don’t have a lot of direct insight into the size of the offshore market or various operators, but it’s clear Bovada is one of the largest in the offshore market.

It’s also far from the only one. Just search for “best online sportsbooks” or “best online casinos” and you are likely to get a number of sites telling you about offshore options. In sports betting, for instance, some of the more well-known offshore sportsbooks are BetUS, BetOnline and MyBookie. (Anecdotally, I have gotten a number of pieces of direct mail from BetUS this football season and in most years).

(I am not posting links to these affiliate sites here, but reach out if you want examples of listings of offshore sportsbooks/casinos. I’ll also point out they and the sportsbooks are using player images and league marks; seems like that should be a problem.)

You can’t count on everyone following the leader

In some instances, one nastygram will be enough to get everyone to follow suit; we have seen it work in gambling before. But I don’t think that strategy is coming to fruition here, with means more C&D’s should be going out.

We have seen the results of sending these letters to Bovada. While they may not respond directly, they have been leaving the states in question. There’s a tipping point at which they would fight back or not exit a state, but we’re apparently not there yet.

There’s quite possibly a reason why regulators feel Bovada is particularly vulnerable. But is there a downside at this point to sending out C&D’s to other offshore operators? The worst they can say is “no.” The upside is you have eliminated an offshore sportsbook or online casino from your state.

In any event, we’re not likely to see sweeping federal action against offshore any time soon. Which means the states, which are having success, should be leading the way … assuming they don’t want unregulated gambling happening within their borders.

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