The Monday Line: Apple Sports Is Not A Gambling App; First Basket = 'Fantasy Sports'?
Here’s today’s quick rundown in the world of US gambling.
Apple Sports is not a gambling app
This read on Apple Sports from The Atlantic was pretty weird. No, it’s not a gambling app. You could tell this was gonna be weird as soon as we got “The scores on the app were ahead of the telecast.” Well, no crap. Do people really not know that reality is ahead of TV? Maybe at some point, Apple turns on links to DraftKings to create a new user and retention funnel (that would be cool for DraftKings but not a needle mover for Apple). But there are two more compelling reasons for Apple Sports to exist: 1. Create a killer app for live scores (I don’t think anything on the market is ideal) and 2. serve as a funnel for Apple TV. Apple is one of the only companies that could even hope to disrupt the market for No. 1, and owning :checks notes: “all the sports fans” would be pretty valuable. Maybe Apple Sports is or will be useful for gamblers, but that doesn’t make gambling the main reason for it to exist.
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First basket = “fantasy sports”?
I yell a lot about how the fantasy pick’em industry continues to push the envelope of what is considered “fantasy sports” because it can. I haven’t seen anything quite as egregious on this front as Chalkboard, which offers first-basket, first-rebound and first-assist markets for the NBA. If you are giving users the chance to parlay two first-basket props, you’re offering gambling. Sure, maybe it’s legal in some states. But it’s still gambling. In a time where we’re seeing more regulatory pushback on fantasy pick’em, serving the addressable (and largely unregulated) market with stuff like this is probably appealing… at least in the short term. Here are the states Chalkboard serves, for the record.
Quick hitters
Here’s my roundup of gambling legislation in the U.S. from Friday; there’s a negative update in Alabama.
The criminal cases against Iowa college athletes and sports betting were dismissed.
FanDuel inks a deal with the Carolina Panthers ahead of the NC sports betting launch.
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