Tipico Is Tops

An unlikely app has ascended to the top spot of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming's proprietary app rankings: Tipico, which powers the Ocean Casino online app in New Jersey.

Oct 10, 2023

NEWS: Tipico is the (surprise) top online casino app in the US, per Eilers & Krejcik’s proprietary app testing.
NEWS: The top headlines from Day 1 of G2E.
NEWS: UnderDog announces RG Intiative GuardDog.
SIDENOTE: Underdog’s strategy to become the biggest sportsbook in the US.
VIEWS: When (if?) the Seminole Tribe launches its Hard Rock mobile betting app, Florida sports betting will underperform, analyst says.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: The latest updates in Florida have a relaunch occurring by mid-2024 or 2025 at the earliest.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Kentucky Governor catches some heat for a sports betting tweet. AGA rolls up the red carpet for Underdog.
STRAY THOUGHTS: Twitter and me.

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Tipico Is the #1 Online Casino App

This one ranks pretty high on the things I didn’t expect to type list; Tipico is the top-ranked online casino app in the US, according to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming’s 2H23 U.S. online casino app rankings.

Tipico is a largely unknown name in the US, where it powers the Ocean Casino online app in New Jersey. Its sportsbook is live in just three states: New Jersey, Colorado, and Ohio.

Even the EKG Lines Newsletter called the results “a surprise,” as Tipico scored 16.3 out of a possible 20 points.

Per EKG’s analysis, while it doesn’t stand out in any specific way, the Tipico app does a lot of things well, “from in-app navigation to game loading and stability.” More importantly, it doesn’t do anything wrong, and for online casino apps, getting “the basics right is the most important thing.”

BetMGM came in second, with DraftKings rounding out the podium finishers. Barstool (the previous #1) and FanDuel rounded out the Top 5.

The most important takeaway from this cycle was the increasing quality. Per EKG, Barstool slid from first to fourth because it stood still while other apps improved. In addition to more content, EKG noted, “We are also seeing the floor raised considerably for slots content with most of the major operators now having most of the suppliers integrated at this point.”

To that point, last week, Tipico announced it is “launching a fully-redesigned Casino platform in the coming days, with 50% faster processing speeds and 7x faster withdrawal speeds. With a new Netflix-style app redesign.

“The new app closely resembles today’s television streaming platforms, personalized for each individual user with high-speed search engine functionality to seamlessly navigate over 700 games.”

You can sign up for the EKG LInes newsletter here and listen to Episode 7 of the EKG Zero Latency podcast, featuring lead product tester Danny McCarthy.

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G2E Day 1 Roundup

2023 poised to be a record-setting year: As reported by CDC Gaming Reports, organizers said “all signs indicated that a record-setting event is possible.”

“We have some people registering today, and we of course, will see a lot of registration activity tomorrow,” said Korbi Carrison, event vice president, G2E, RX USA. “Things are trending very well. I believe we will see numbers ahead of last year.”

That would mean attendance eclipsing 25,000.

Monday is an education-only day, so the true attendance won’t be seen until the showroom floor opens tomorrow.

On the online gambling front: From Matt Rybaltowski at US Bets comes an interesting juxtaposition from Howard Wang, the managing director at Ares Management. During a session dubbed Gaming’s Business Outlook: How Does the Industry Keep up the Momentum of the Past Two Years?, Wang noted lawmakers will be skeptical of how online gambling will interact with existing gambling [not to mention the concerns about social harms] while stating his belief that “iGaming is probably the biggest growth opportunity for the industry.”

According to Wang, and I very much agree with this, “It’s going to come very slowly because no governor or official wants to be the first to allow this to happen, and then all of the sudden jobs are lost, or you start cannibalizing existing revenue.”

The above scenario is unlikely, but the perceived possibility is hard to overcome.

Some good reads:

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Underdog Launches New RG Investment Initiative

Yesterday, Underdog Fantasy (a newsletter sponsor) announced the launch of GuardDog, “a pioneering investment initiative dedicated to fostering innovation in responsible gaming,” along with $1 million of funding.

Per the release, “GuardDog’s mission is to identify, invest, and help grow innovative startups that help real-money operators operate responsibly and players play responsibly… GuardDog will make investments in companies building technology and solutions to make fantasy, betting, and all real-money games safer and more enjoyable for those who play.”

Companies selected will receive more than money, as GuardDog will connect them with advisors, mentors, and investors, including RG consultant and lobbyist Brianne Doura-Schawohl, Adam Warrington, former vice president of Responsible Gaming at FanDuel; Chris Grove, partner at Acies Investments; Dan Hartman, former director of the Colorado Division of Gaming; and Sara Tait, former executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission.

“We know there are tons of dreamers, entrepreneurs, and builders out there that can help build a stronger, more responsible ecosystem for all. We want to help those innovating in responsibility by providing capital, mentorship, and valuable connections,” said Jeremy Levine, founder and co-CEO of Underdog. “We’re really excited to launch GuardDog, and we can’t wait to help some amazing companies.”

For far too long, I and others have lamented the lack of innovation in the RG space. As I recently wrote, “RG-PG discussions are stagnant and, by their own metrics, ineffective.” GuardDog seems like a good remedy, as it will bring in new voices and ideas to the otherwise stale RG space.

Sidenote: Underdog’s Strategy

Meanwhile, Underdog founder and co-CEO Jeremy Levine spoke with SBC Americas last week on a wide range of topics, from the legality of DFS products to Underdog’s strategy to become “the biggest company in the [sports betting] space,” per Levine.

"The sportsbooks that FanDuel and DraftKings offer, which are great sportsbooks, are the same products that were built for the UK and Europe. Those customers are totally different than the American consumer. The biggest difference is we didn’t grow up betting on sports in America. We grew up playing games.
“If you think about the products we build, they’re focused on players, and they’re more like playing games. That’s the intent even as we build sports betting products, it’s to build products that feel more like games rather than placing a transaction.”

Levine said that while DraftKings and FanDuel are the perfect product for a small percentage of bettors, most people will be “paralyzed by choice,” and someone looking to place a bet on Steph Curry will be seven clicks deep before they find the market they are searching for.

Florida Sports Betting Could Underperform by 35%

In a note, Jordan Bender, a Senior Equity Research Analyst at JMP Securities, highlighted the difficulty with monopoly sports betting markets. Per Bender (and every other analysis I have seen, including my own), states that have limited market access (1-3 operators) have underperformed on a per-population basis, as there is “less incentive to invest in players and the product with no competition.”

Florida would fall into that category, which led JMP to advise, "We believe Florida will generate $1.3bn to $1.5bn of gaming revenue at maturity, compared to $2bn if the market was competitive."

Bender also noted that Hard Rock has not been a world-beater and lags behind some of its high-profile peers in terms of tech. The lack of options might keep bettors out of the legal sports betting market - anywhere from a third to a quarter of bettors, per JMP’s estimates.

Beyond the Headline: When Will FL Sports Betting Go Live?

The latest out of Florida has a one-time Seminole ally siding with West Flagler in the state battle over sports betting, not to be confused with the federal case.

No Casinos, who led the charge to get Amendment 3 on the 2018 ballot, has petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to file an amicus brief in the West Flagler case.

No Casinos bills itself as an anti-gambling group, so this is No Surprise. What was a surprise was the support it received from the Seminole Tribe in 2018, in the classic case of strange bedfellows.

As Robert Linehan reported, No Casinos missed the standard filing deadline and now seeks permission for a late filing. Linehan later reported that the No Casino request was approved, “The Florida Supreme Court will allow No Casino Inc. to file a brief in support of West Flagler’s lawsuit against Florida online sports betting. Deadline by Oct. 16.”

Per the request:

“Sports betting that would take ‘Indian gaming’ off the reservation and into everyone’s hand-held device cannot be squared with the will of the people who voted for Amendment 3, and No Casinos, Inc., would assist the Court in seeing how those policy concerns undergird and support the legal arguments, as set forth in the Petition.”

With all of the legal machinations, pinpointing the return of sports betting is difficult.

In an interview with Play USA, Attorney Daniel Wallach laid out two possible timelines for the return of Florida sports betting, noting that there is nothing prohibiting the Seminole Tribe from relaunching now:

Path 1: A relaunch by mid-2024. The Seminoles receive favorable rulings at the SCOTUS and Florida Supreme Court.
Path 2: 2025 and beyond. SCOTUS decides to take the case.

Wallach believes there is a stronger-than-normal chance SCOTUS will take the case, telling Play USA, “If the normal statistical likelihood is under 2%, I would give this one north of 20%.”

Around the Watercooler

Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.

Kentucky’s fast start was praised and criticized.

There were some praising keeping these dollars in Kentucky, but the responses were anything but friendly, with many noting gambling revenue isn’t exactly what comes to mind when one thinks about the path to a brighter future for families.

In other news, it appears the rift between DFS 2.0 and the industry is growing wider.

That led to some back-and-forth between Dustin Gouker and Underdog General Counsel Nicholas Green.

Stray Thoughts

I have always used Twitter/X for work. It was a handy place to post my content and keep people informed of what was taking place in the gambling sphere, and I had built up a decent following of people who were interested in my content.

The platform has become (even before the Elon takeover) largely useless for this purpose. If you put the word substack or post a substack link, it is throttled by the algorithm, and most links off-site are also deboosted. Basically, if you steer someone away from X, your post’s visibility goes way down.

And so does your overall profile. The amount of engagement for all posts (with or without links) has decreased to a point where I wonder if it’s even worth posting.

There are ways around this, but it requires a lot of time and effort that I simply don’t have. X wants you to create long-form content for the site - at a cost of $8 to you.

I understand X’s point of view, but the purpose of the site is to provide a town square for discussions. Yes, people go off-site to read my article, but they will discuss it on X.

This is a long way of me saying I will probably change the way I use X going forward. If I use it at all.