SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
Making Sense Of DraftKings’ Multi-Billion Dollar Valuation
Sporting a pencil-thin mustache and a quarantine beard, much like thousands of millennial sports bettors during the global pandemic, Jason Robins took part in a virtual opening bell-ringing ceremony on the morning of April 24 to toast DraftKings’ entry into the public market.
Since then, DraftKings has embarked on a meteoric rise, skyrocketing from just over $20 to $40 a share in recent sessions. A sizzling start, in which DraftKings’ shares have more than doubled since its April debut, augurs well not only for the company’s long-term viability but for publicly traded sports betting stocks in general.
Possessing characteristics that more closely resemble a tech stock than a European sports betting shop, DraftKings appeals to investors in it for the long haul. Roughly eight years to the day from when DraftKings launched operations in a spare room in co-founder Paul Liberman’s home in Watertown, Mass., the company began trading in April on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as a multi-billion dollar company.
Full story here.
The Future Of Sports Betting: How U.S. State Rankings Will Look At The End Of 2021
This current moment, one week away from the midpoint of 2020, is not a particularly profound time for assessing the health of legal sports betting in America. The COVID-19 pandemic has suspended all U.S.-based team sports action for more than three months and halted most in-person wagering, rendering sports gambling handle and revenue data relatively insignificant.
So when we look at the state-by-state rankings for betting action across the last couple of months, there’s only so much we can extrapolate about what to expect when this “new normal” gives way to something resembling our former normal.
We’re also in the midst of something of a tipping-point moment in terms of new sports betting launches, with major states Illinois and Michigan going live just as the coronavirus shutdown began, Colorado joining them a couple of months later, and Virginia and Tennessee among the many jurisdictions currently plotting start dates.
Full story here.
Illinois Casinos Scheduled To Reopen July 1
The Illinois Gaming Board announced Thursday that casinos can commence the resumption of gaming at 9 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 1.
The announcement comes on the heels of Gov. J.B. Pritzker announcing earlier Thursday the entire state will be entering Phase 4 of Restore Illinois on Friday. Casinos across the Land of Lincoln have been shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic since mid-March, which also put a damper on live Illinois sports betting that had begun one week prior to the shutdown.
Earlier this month, Pritzker issued an Executive Order suspending the in-person registration for mobile sports betting, and Rivers Casino — also the first to market in Illinois for legal sports wagering — was first to the mobile market via BetRivers.
Full story here.
Not This Time: California Sports Betting Dead In Legislature
Legal sports betting IS NOT coming to California. At least not any time soon.
On Monday, state Sen. Bill Dodd announced that he was withdrawing from consideration SCA 6, which would have legalized mobile and retail sports betting across the state. It had been scheduled for a vote in the Appropriations Committee Tuesday. The move means that it could now be years before sports betting is legal in California, which would become the biggest sports betting market in the U.S. once live and mature.
In a statement, Dodd said it wasn’t possible to get the legislation “across the finish line” this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and legislative deadlines. But Dodd’s version of legal California sports betting is at odds with what the state’s tribes envision, and the two sides haven’t had any meaningful dialogue about sports betting since Dodd and Rep. Adam Gray filed their sports betting amendments in early June.
Full story here.
Gold, Silver And Gambling: How Colorado’s Gaming Towns Came To Be
From fire to brothels to opera, Colorado’s gaming towns have a rich history dating to the gold rush and winding their way through the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and beyond. When you consider the entrepreneurial and adventurous spirits on which these towns were founded, it’s no surprise that Colorado’s gaming zones are centralized in three former mining towns. Those three towns — Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek — needed a way to survive, and after suffering the boom-and-bust gold rush era and multiple wars, they set their sights on gaming, creating unique destinations that offer a walk through history alongside table games, slot machines, and now legal sports betting.
Last November, Colorado voters approved a referendum to allow sports wagering, and every one of Colorado’s 33 commercial casinos has applied for a sports betting license. The Saratoga Casino in Black Hawk last week became the first to open a retail sportsbook — on the same day that brick-and-mortar casinos were allowed to re-open their doors amid the COVID-19 crisis. About six weeks earlier, four mobile sportsbook— BetMGM, BetRivers, DraftKings and FanDuel — launched digital platforms available to bettors across the state.
Full story here.
Don’t Bet On It: Washington Sports Betting Won’t Launch This Year
The takeaway from Tuesday’s Washington State Gambling Commission meeting is this: Don’t expect to be able to place legal sports bets in the state in the near future. Four tribes have started renegotiating their compacts to include sports wagering and two more have requested to do so, but Director David Trujillo said “we’ll be realistic even if realism is not what people want to hear,” via a statement.
Trujillo is currently serving with the National Guard, and his statement was read by Acting Director Tina Griffin. There was no discussion among commissioners.
Tribal-only sports betting was legalized in Washington in March. Under the new law, Washington’s tribes can offer in-person sports wagering on casino properties, but statewide mobile betting is not part of the package. Patrons will be able to bet on professional and college sports, though betting on Washington State college teams is prohibited.
Full story here.
