00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
00:08Let's bring in Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports Report as we get into the very latest in sports
00:13betting.
00:14And Sam, let's start off with the big news yesterday.
00:17BallyBet makes it official.
00:18They are on board in Massachusetts.
00:21Thanks for coming on.
00:22Let's get to it.
00:23Yeah, Craig, BallyBet finally launching in Massachusetts yesterday, nearly a year and
00:29a half after most of the state's other apps.
00:32The state now has seven legal sports betting apps after Better and WinBet decided to pull
00:36out in February.
00:40Those apps actually only combine for less than 3% of the market share, which is why
00:44they left.
00:45So it has a lot of people wondering why now for Bally's.
00:49It could be a similar experience for them, quite frankly, because in other states they
00:53operate in, they hold less than 3% of the market.
00:56So a lot of people wondering why now for Bally's.
00:59There's been reports that the launch already maybe hasn't gone so well.
01:03People struggling with signups.
01:05Bally's switched over to the new third-party technology last fall owned by Camby.
01:12So a lot of people, yeah, wondering why now.
01:14And the answer probably is Rhode Island and iGaming.
01:18It just so happens that they have a monopoly on iGaming in Rhode Island, the neighboring
01:23state to Massachusetts, which could present a huge opportunity for the company, which
01:27has thrown about $3 billion away on failed sports betting investments.
01:32Now management has been talking about, we need to ramp up iGaming.
01:36So people are thinking, okay, maybe they took forever because they weren't good with the
01:40technology.
01:41They finally launched because they, you know, believe that they can really tap into that
01:47market in the neighboring state.
01:49A lot of people on the Massachusetts border could theoretically drive over the border,
01:54go into Rhode Island.
01:55They could get them as customers, and that would be essentially a cross-selling opportunity
01:59for BallyBet from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.
02:03But it means Bally had to put up a lot of money up front.
02:06It cost about a million dollars for the license in Massachusetts.
02:09So they already paid that.
02:10I guess they had to eventually launch.
02:13But yeah, it's kind of a strange scenario in terms of having BallyBet join these states.
02:19I'd be surprised if they did better than those operators like WinBet and Better, which eventually
02:24left.
02:25So yeah, we'll have to see, you know, how they do going forward, but kind of an interesting,
02:31you know, reason for them to launch in Massachusetts.
02:36I think that it'll be an interesting dynamic to see if BallyBet can actually succeed in
02:41a big way in any state.
02:43Massachusetts seems to be one with a little bit of an opening.
02:45So we will see.
02:46All right.
02:47Latest on some expectations for DraftKings.
02:49Let's get to some of the quarterly reports, U.S. Open, Major League Baseball, a lot of
02:54opportunities still to bet on sports, not the primary ones.
02:56Of course, it's summertime, a little bit different, Sam.
02:59Yeah.
03:00Deutsche Bank, one of the leading Wall Street firms, lowered its expectations for DraftKings
03:04this quarter due to what they called higher anticipated customer acquisition costs from
03:09launching in states like North Carolina.
03:12And like you alluded to, Craig, customer-friendly outcomes from the U.S. Open and Major League
03:16Baseball.
03:17So DraftKings had targeted their structural hold.
03:20This is, you know, the percent of money that the sportsbook keeps for the year to be 10.5%.
03:26But already analysts like the ones at Deutsche Bank are coming out saying they had a really
03:30bad quarter.
03:31They were hit pretty hard.
03:33And if you recall, I think we talked about this in the fourth quarter as well.
03:36I think they had a slightly better Q1.
03:39So they've been getting kind of hit hard.
03:42You know, Bryson DeChambeau was plus 5,000 to win the U.S. Open.
03:47He was the second most bet on in terms of money and handle at most books with about
03:5212% of the tickets and 21% of the money at DraftKings.
03:56So that's a lot of money that they lost on golf there.
03:58And then, Craig, I'll pitch this one to you.
04:01Seems like they've been getting killed in Major League Baseball.
04:04What's going on there recently?
04:05Has there been a lot of favorites winning?
04:08I haven't been following what's going on with the MLB.
04:11No, I think that what you're seeing is a lot of huge numbers, a lot of minus 300s, minus
04:16250s, and really the way that the sportsbooks are sort of adjusting the odds because there's
04:21several teams that don't even have named starting pitchers going into the games.
04:26There's been this rash of injuries.
04:27And the Brewers, by the way, they made a trade for a pitcher today, Sam.
04:32It's the 16th starting pitcher they have used.
04:35We are not even at the All-Star break.
04:36So when they're adjusting these odds, if you have a pitcher of any consequence going
04:40against a pitcher that is just coming up or maybe in a trade or something else, they got
04:44to make the odds minus 300.
04:46You're seeing minus 250s and minus 300s more than you ever have.
04:50So that dynamic has changed the way that people have to bet on it.
04:54And maybe that's a part of it as well.
04:56All right, let's get to New Jersey.
04:58And obviously, the update there is college sports is coming, Sam.
05:03We're less than two months away from the beginning of the college football season.
05:06And I know yesterday we talked a little bit on the show.
05:08Maybe you can expand about the possibility of New Jersey getting college sports back
05:13on their sports betting apps again.
05:15Yeah, Assemblyman Michael Venezia introduced a constitutional amendment last week that
05:22would allow people in New Jersey to bet on New Jersey college teams.
05:26New Jersey, one of the handful of states where you can't bet on the in-state teams, much
05:30to people's aggravation in the state, if you recall the restriction a few years ago prevented
05:37a lot of action on St. Peter's when it made its Cinderella run to the Elite Eight in March Madness.
05:41It actually, the scenario caused bettors who picked North Carolina to win the East region
05:47to get paid out before the final game was even played because you couldn't, you know,
05:52you couldn't have bet on St. Peter's.
05:54So North Carolina would have been the farthest that that team had won.
05:57I mean, North Carolina did actually end up winning.
05:58So it avoided a really weird scenario where, let's say, St. Peter's won the whole thing.
06:04If you had bet on the opposing team that they played in the final to win it all, you
06:08would have made money on them if you're in New Jersey.
06:10So there's now another push in New Jersey to, you know, basically repeal this.
06:16It's not this Assemblyman's first try.
06:18A few years ago, he was behind or part of, rather, this push for another constitutional
06:24amendment, which was actually rejected by the state.
06:27About 57% of the people in New Jersey that voted at the polls voted against it.
06:32So you have to think, like, will they be successful this time?
06:36Will it take another push?
06:38And multiple sportsbooks have struggled as well with this rule getting fined for, you
06:44know, mistakenly leaving open markets that they probably shouldn't have.
06:47So you have to think the industry is rooting behind this.
06:49More betting is always good for the industry.
06:51They will also argue that a lot of it happens offshore.
06:55You know, more betting is essentially just good for the industry.
06:57So they're going to be behind this as well.
06:59But the legislature is one of the few that are still in session right now.
07:03So obviously, they're off for the July 4th holiday.
07:06We'll see if this becomes a priority afterwards.
07:09But if a state like New Jersey, which, quite frankly, is pretty prominent in sports betting
07:14policy, when they make a big decision or big move, people tend to follow, people tend to
07:18listen.
07:19So if they get this done, it would be huge for the state, huge for the sportsbooks, and
07:23potentially could spread to other states and reverse a trend that we've seen, you know,
07:28with more and more crackdowns, less bets people want to have on college players.
07:33It could be a good thing overall, if you're bullish on the industry.
07:36Yeah, I would agree.
07:38Let me ask you a quick question before you go.
07:39Do you anticipate these college player props still being available in some places this
07:45upcoming college football season?
07:48In some places, yes.
07:50But in less places, probably, because we've seen that push from the NCAA, the sportsbooks
07:56have gotten involved, too.
07:57There's a lot going on behind the scenes.
07:59I mean, the NCAA is a mess, so anything they can do, probably, to have less betting or
08:04less headlines, I would say they'll be behind it.
08:06So a few states will hold out, but if I had to guess, if you asked me two years from now,
08:11maybe zero.
08:12Yeah.
08:13I mean, it could be.
08:14I think that we could be heading toward the end of player props in college sports, generally
08:18speaking, or maybe some max bets, which is what I've been suggesting for a long time.
08:22Anyway, Sam, great to have you back here on Newswire.
08:24Thanks again for coming on.
08:25Yeah, absolutely.
08:26Thank you, Craig.
08:27Thanks, Sam.
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