SportsHandle: That was the week that was in US sports betting

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

Biometric Data Is The Next Statistical Frontier For Sportsbooks, Bettors

Imagine opening up NBA Core Plays on RotoGrinders one day and seeing Andy Means type something like, “Stephen Curry averages 4.3 more points per game on back-to-backs when he gets at least 6.6 hours of sleep the night before, so be sure to check back later today when the biometric data is released …”

Or maybe you’re getting ready for NFL Sunday just as you’re going to take the Cowboys and lay the points, Adam Schefter tweets out that Zeke Elliot didn’t get his heart rate above 112 during pre-game workouts, and the last time that happened he ran for 45 yards on 20 carries and …

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Departure Of FanDuel CEO Matt King Will Likely Delay Flutter’s U.S. Spin-Off

Flutter Entertainment plc announced Wednesday that FanDuel CEO Matt King intends to step down from his position, a move that will likely delay the company’s planned divestiture of its U.S. assets.

Over the past four years in the position, King has overseen the company’s transition from daily fantasy sports to become one of the top online sports betting operators nationwide. During the first quarter, Flutter generated nearly $400 million from its U.S. businesses, an increase of 135% from the previous year’s period, reflecting strong customer acquisition growth in new states such as Michigan and Virginia. Of that amount, FanDuel accounted for 91.6% of revenue, or almost $360 million.

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Illinois Posts Record $633.6M For Sports Betting Handle In March

Say this much for Illinois when it comes to sports betting: While being the last one to report its monthly figures, it usually winds up being worth the wait.

The Illinois Gaming Board released its revenue report for March, and aided by the entry of Barstool Sportsbook and the NCAA tournament, bettors delivered a record traditional handle of more than $633.6 million.

It blew past the previous record of $581.5 million set in January as Illinois joined Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana as the only states to clear $3 billion in handle in the post-PASPA era dating to May 2018.

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Sportsbook Advertising Is A Total Game-Changer For Radio Stations

The Nielsen Corporation recently detailed how huge the  online sports betting advertising market had become, with nearly $200 million in ad spend in Q1 this year alone, and over $153 million of that spent in the local television ad space. To give some idea of the growth of this segment of the market, in Q1 2019, the local television ad revenue from online gambling advertising was … $10 million.

Local radio stations have also captured a slice, albeit a smaller one, of this pie, with nearly $4 million in online gambling ad revenue in Q1 2021.

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Online Sportsbook Operators Bet Big On Local TV Ads In First Quarter of 2021

If it seems you’ve been seeing a lot of ads for sports betting operators this year, you’re not mistaken. That’s dependent in large part, of course, on whether you’re in one of the states now with legal sports betting.

If you are, and if you watch television, you would have put eyeballs on a share of the total $153.7 million spent by sportsbook-connected companies on local TV ads in the first quarter of 2021. That’s up from “a mere $10.7 million at the start of 2019,”  Nielsen Co. reported recently as a tracker of such data.

The recent surge in such marketing places online gambling 11th for its local TV spending from among hundreds of different product categories that are analyzed by Nielsen. The ads by FanDuel, DraftKings, and their peers total 2% of local TV ad dollars. (Legal services represent the top category, at 7%.)

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PA Casinos Aren’t Exactly Back To Normal Yet, But Man They’re Getting Close

The rebound of the casino industry from 2020’s sad, dark nadir appears to be in full swing in the spring of 2021, with Pennsylvania’s properties no exception.

National operators, including those with casinos in Pennsylvania, have reported seeing a resurgence of gaming revenue and overall patronage in April-May to accelerate positive trends they already experienced in the first quarter of the year.

Though they are handicapped by some operating restrictions still in effect and difficulty finding new employees to fill open positions as they ramp back up, casino executives are generally more optimistic than they have been in months as a majority of the population becomes vaccinated and willing to return to large-scale social situations.

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Wynn Interactive Eyes IPO And Long Game In Online Gambling Sector

Wynn Resorts got a relatively late start to the U.S. online gambling market, but the market is still very nascent and Wynn is now moving more chips into the center of the table.

Wynn Resorts, Limited and Austerlitz Acquisition Corporation I on Monday announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Austerlitz I will combine with Wynn Interactive, a subsidiary of Wynn Resorts, to create an independent public company.

The combined company will relist its shares on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol “WBET.”

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