00:00 Let's get to Rush Street, their CEO,
00:02 with a very important discussion this past week
00:04 on the future of what Bett Rivers holds.
00:07 They've had this very, I would say,
00:08 positive niche in some markets, Sam,
00:12 and they haven't really expanded beyond that.
00:14 So what'd you take from this conversation?
00:16 - Yeah, pretty interesting comments
00:19 from a company that's sort of been fourth or fifth
00:23 in total market share since US legalization started.
00:27 They haven't been too competitive
00:30 compared to Fandu and DraftKings,
00:31 but they're there and their online casino product
00:34 is pretty prominent in a bunch of states.
00:36 They actually just took over in Delaware for 888
00:39 as kind of the only operator there.
00:42 So it's gonna be interesting to see
00:43 what they do in that market.
00:44 But the CEO coming out this week
00:47 and essentially saying,
00:48 "While all these sports books are zigging,
00:50 "we're going to zag, parlays,"
00:52 and sort of squeezing more money out of people
00:55 has not really been their focus
00:57 but what they've been talking about
00:59 is doing something you've seen other companies
01:01 like BetMGM and Caesars do.
01:03 I wouldn't say completely abandon or give up
01:05 on the sports betting race,
01:07 but kind of refocus it and reframe it
01:10 within their larger thinking.
01:11 And look to iGaming.
01:13 The CEO, Richard Shorts, talked to investors this week
01:16 about the importance of leveraging third-party affiliates
01:20 to promote casino games
01:22 and sort of use that to get to customers
01:24 as opposed to the mass advertising
01:27 that a lot of the companies,
01:28 frankly, no one's been able to compete with, have done
01:31 and people have been kind of spending money
01:32 or sports books rather,
01:33 have been spending money to keep up with that.
01:35 He's talking about sort of a different avenue
01:37 to reach people.
01:38 Mainly, I think iGaming,
01:40 you're gonna see propped up a lot more
01:42 when you talk about the investment side of companies
01:44 and the future there.
01:46 Even though it doesn't seem like many states
01:47 are gonna legalize it anytime soon,
01:49 it seems like now is kind of the lull period
01:52 where you're gonna have these smaller companies
01:54 like BetRivers, Rush Street Interactive,
01:56 the parent company,
01:57 even legacy casino companies like Caesars
02:00 really focus in on getting the product right
02:03 to ultimately prep for when that expansion happens
02:05 to kind of be the first move
02:07 or really successful in that space.
02:09 So interesting to hear him kind of talk about,
02:12 we're not trying to do parlays,
02:13 we're not trying to push people towards this
02:16 where we get a higher hold percentage in sports betting.
02:18 It's more about the big picture business, iGaming,
02:21 as it relates to sports betting
02:22 and then everything that could come from there.
02:24 They've got a lot of bingo games,
02:26 different sorts of ways of trying to cater to customers
02:28 outside of the kind of their traditional sports betting
02:32 to kind of get them away from some of the disadvantages
02:34 they have compared to a Flutter, FanDuel, DraftKings,
02:37 which sort of have unlimited pockets
02:39 when it comes to advertising,
02:41 especially as it comes to sports betting as well.
02:43 So it'll be interesting to see how they do in Delaware
02:46 going forward as kind of the main company there,
02:50 really the only one offering any product.
02:52 I mean, we'll see how investors react
02:54 to kind of that as an example.
02:56 They don't really have any more states on the horizon.
02:58 So when there's less competition,
03:00 is that going to be good for BetRivers?
03:02 Are they actually going to be able to capitalize on this?
03:05 You know, you think on paper they would,
03:07 but we'll have to see going forward
03:08 kind of how everything shakes out,
03:10 especially when you have those other companies at the top
03:12 and the newcomers like Fanatics, ESPNBet,
03:15 and obviously you had BetMGM and Caesars all in there.
03:17 It's sort of like, where does one,
03:19 who's kind of the next domino to fall out of there?
03:21 Some people have speculated BetRivers,
03:23 but it seems like they have a plan to kind of,
03:25 you know, keep themselves afloat
03:26 and stay competitive going forward.
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