SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.

Recruiting Season: Just How Big A Deal Is The University of Colorado-PointsBet Sportsbook Pact?

While not exactly the first of its kind, the new partnership announced Tuesday between PointsBet Sportsbook and the University of Colorado Athletics program signals a seismic shift in the evolving relationship between collegiate athletics and legal sports betting. 

The five-year corporate partnership, negotiated by CU Athletics’ commercial rights holder Learfield IMG College, is “one of the few in existence between a sports betting operator and a major NCAA Division I Athletics Program,” Colorado’s associate athletic director David Plati said in a statement.

Full story here.

An App Fit For El Presidente: Will Launch Of Barstool Sportsbook App Push Penn National Above $85 A Share By The Super Bowl?

Earlier this summer, with the global sports schedule sidelined by a once-in-a-century pandemic, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy occupied his time by day trading on a live webcam in front of thousands of loyal Stoolies.

Swinging a heavy green mallet above his head, Portnoy did his best Carlton Fisk impression, imploring shares of Penn National Gaming to move higher. As the seconds ticked down toward market close, Portnoy reached down to his smartphone and began to blare the 1983 hit “Sweet Dreams” by the British duo Eurythmics. Unlike most founders of major companies valued at $450 million, Portnoy traded on a June afternoon in garb fit for a frat boy — wearing a personalized Boston Celtics jersey and a white cap adorned with a DDTG logo, short for his self-proclaimed stock picking service — Davey Day Trader Global.

Full story here.

Up Casino Retail Sportsbook Opens In Time For Rare ‘Super Sports Equinox’

Thursday evening, sports bettors will have more wagering options and sports action to follow than on almost any other date in the history of competitive athletics.

There’s an NBA playoff game headlined by LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers; the Las Vegas Knights and Dallas Stars facing off in game three of the NHL Western Conference Finals; a slate of 12 MLB games; an MLS match between the Seattle Sounders and San Jose Quakes; Serena Williams playing in the U.S. Open semifinals; college football action pitting the University of Miami Hurricanes against the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers; and the grand-daddy of them all, the first game of the 2020-21 NFL season, with defending Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans.

Full story here.

Offshore Sportsbook 5Dimes Is Shutting Down To U.S. Customers, Eyeing Rebirth In States

In what proponents of legal U.S. sports betting would consider a victory, popular offshore sportsbook 5Dimes announced early Sunday evening that it will suspend U.S. operations at midnight Sept. 21 in order to “take advantage of the opportunity to offer an improved online sports betting experience to our many U.S. customers.”

The notice sent to customers referenced the “evolving legal landscape in the U.S.,” suggesting that it will relaunch as a legal entity in some/certain sports betting states in the U.S.  The company did not specify how it may accomplish a transition from operating illegally outside of the U.S. — to legal operator in a U.S. jurisdiction(s) in some capacity.

Full story here.

‘It’s All About Customer Service’ As Sportsbooks Welcome 2020 NFL Season

Sportsbooks don’t like to lose money. But in the highly competitive landscape of the current sports gambling industry, as they fight to get back on their feet after the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the spring sports season, they’d much rather lose money — at least in the short term — than lose customers.

After a summer of uncertainty, yes, there will be professional football, as the NFL kicks off its 2020 season Thursday night. Fantasy players stalled their drafts until the last minute, bettors back-burnered their research until the end of a nonexistent preseason, but there’s no more uncertainty about it: Football will be played.

Full story here.

MLB In Nashville For Sports Bettors? Justin Timberlake Throws Support Behind Initiative

A Major League Baseball team for the city of Nashville? Musician Justin Timberlake is betting on it.

Tennesseean.com reported Wednesday that Timberlake, a Memphis native and one of the biggest names in the U.S. music industry, has invested an undisclosed sum in a group known as Music City Baseball, formed to push for a big league team in the state’s most populous city.

Timberlake joined the group at a time when the state is about to kick off legal and regulated online/mobile sports gambling, an activity that makes a team in Nashville even more attractive for investors as well as state and local officials. State-sanctioned sportsbooks would also greatly welcome it, especially considering Tennessee has high costs of entry into the legal betting market.

Full story here