Matthew Waters and the team at Legal Sports Report highlight some of the key US sports betting issues to look out for in the week ahead.
Georgia sports betting hearing expected: The first hearing of Georgia’s mobile-only sports betting bill, SB403, is expected this week. The bill has bipartisan support from five senators and a tax rate of 10% of revenue, but the industry is likely to be left wanting more. For starters, collegiate prop betting would be extremely limited under the current bill. The bill also requires official league data to settle all in-play bets. Each operator would also have to pay a $900,000 annual license fee. Georgia followed a lot of what Tennessee instituted, which is also cause for concern. Tennessee, like Georgia, has no casino gaming and has taken its time to implement its laws. Although the Volunteer State legalized sports betting in May 2019, it still hasn’t gone live.
GVC earnings call Thursday: GVC Holdings is one-half of the joint venture Roar Digital that operates BetMGM, along with MGM Resorts. There’s been plenty going on recently on which GVC can update the market. Most recently, BetMGM launched in Indiana to go live in its fourth online state. GVC CEO Kenny Alexander previously said he expected to eventually get 10% to 15% of market share, though as of January BetMGM had just 5.9% share of New Jersey’s sports betting revenue.
IGT earnings call Tuesday: IGT is primarily known in gaming as a slot and lottery supplier but it has some significant interest in sports betting as well. We hope to hear insight on IGT’s call about its sports betting operations with the Rhode Island lottery, where results have been underwhelming because of in-person registration requirements. IGT also helped Delaware North re-launch in West Virginia after Delaware North’s first attempt at sports betting in the state ran into issues and was stopped in March 2019.
