Betfred Exits Pennsylvania Amid Competitive Struggles

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00:00some of those sports betting operators who do not have a big impact here in the United States to

00:05stay. Now, that's no indictment on the next company that we're going to discuss, Betfred,

00:09because they've been around for a long time outside of the US, Sam. But as we've seen with

00:14some other companies as well, with no new markets opening up, if they're not able to get a bigger

00:19share or piece of the pie of sports betting in the United States, maybe it's just best to operate

00:24outside. Yeah, that's certainly what Betfred decided this week when they announced that they

00:31would be leaving Pennsylvania tomorrow, which marks its last state that's going to be exiting in the

00:36US. It's been here since 2020, was at one point active in over half a dozen states. But like you

00:42mentioned, Craig, it's just there's no new states, there's no new opportunity. Only so many people turn

00:4721 every year to acquire new customers. And meanwhile, you've got DraftKings, you've got

00:53FanDuel gobbling up most of the customers. So if you're a Betfred customer, you're probably

00:57already betting with the competition as well. No new bets are being accepted at this time. But if

01:03you do have a bet in Pennsylvania on Betfred, you'll be able to cash out or settle the bet

01:08until tomorrow. And if your bet is something that isn't going to happen until after tomorrow,

01:13they're going to mail you a check as well. So don't worry about getting your money or your

01:17outstanding bets. If you are in Pennsylvania, but like you mentioned, Craig, it is part of a broader

01:21trend. We've seen companies like Betway, Topico, Sports Illustrated, Sportsbook, all just in the

01:27past 18 months decide that it was too expensive to compete here. Betfred actually took a $91 million

01:33loss last year in the US. So it's really showing that, you know, it's just not worth the cost of

01:39admission. The year before that, interestingly enough, they're actually profitable in the US.

01:43So you got to wonder what changed so quickly in that time period. I think maybe they just kind of

01:47ran out of new customers. And like you mentioned, you know, they are very strong internationally.

01:51We've seen other brands, you know, hesitant to come into the US because it's so expensive,

01:56not only because you have to compete with DraftKings and FanDuel and everybody, but also

02:00because states are charging ultra high tax rates, states are charging ultra high license fees. It's

02:05becoming just harder in general to do business from a money standpoint in general, let alone the

02:11competition. So yeah, Betfred closing up shop will be gone by tomorrow. We'll see if any sportsbook

02:17fills this void. It'll mean that there's a license up for grabs in Pennsylvania, which is one of the

02:22biggest states for sports betting and is home to a lot of other operators. At this point, you know,

02:27we're getting to a time when no one's rushing into the market. Everyone's kind of exiting, leaving or

02:31selling off their business. You know, we saw PointsBet do something similar. You know, at that time,

02:36we had Fanatics jump in. We had ESPN Bet jump in as well. But right now, there's no players really

02:41like that. We're waiting to get into the market. You got to wonder how much longer it's going to be,

02:46you know, a market we talk about with all those other books in general before it's just, you know,

02:50two or three.