Mississippi Grind
An online sports betting hearing in Mississippi devolved into an airing of grievances against online casino gambling.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: An online sports betting hearing in Mississippi was a shining example of the difficulties of legalizing online casinos.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: People will find a way to bet.
NEWS: Stories and updates from around the gambling universe.
NEWS: Maine regulators hit Underdog Fantasy with a massive fine.
VIEWS: A new way to affiliate: Meet SharpLink HQ.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Explaining the latest Florida sports betting update.
STRAY THOUGHTS:
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iCasino Takes Center Stage as MS Considers Mobile Sports Betting
Mississippi is considering expanding into mobile sports betting. But based on a hearing held on Tuesday, where numerous concerns were raised, it will be a difficult lift.
As Jessica Welman tweeted, some of the concerned were conflating sports betting’s 90/10 online to in-person split to online gambling in general. “One disconcerting part of yesterday's hearing was some people making the assertion that 90% of the retail market would move online as opposed to the more likely result,” Welman said. “Maybe 15% of retail trails off, and the market basically quadruples in size.”
I would add that a non-trivial percentage of online-only customers became multi-channel customers, playing online and visiting casinos as they receive brick-and-mortar offers from their online play.
All that said, online casino isn’t even on the Mississippi menu, and online sports betting supporters tried to make that clear.
“While we support iCasino for all the same reasons that we support online sports betting, I want to be clear that we are not advocating for iCasino to be put in this online sports betting legislation,” Penn Entertainment’s Director of Public Affairs & Government Relations Jason Tosches said. “I think we have broad alignment on that across maybe all or a significant majority of Mississippi’s casinos. I don’t necessarily think that would be helpful to getting online sports betting.”
But some are so against online casinos that they believe online sports betting is a Trojan Horse. Those fears stem from cannibalization concerns.
As Steve Bittenbender tweeted:
Bottom line: Legalizing online sports betting in Mississippi will be a grind.
Beyond the Headline: It’s Already Happening
In his prepared testimony for Tuesday’s Mississippi hearing, John Pappas, the Sr. Vice President of Government and Public Affairs at GeoComply, highlighted several numbers that will almost certainly be considered in a rational, measured way ignored.
GeoComply blocked 1.7 million attempts from within the borders of Mississippi to access out-of-state sportsbooks. These attempts came from over 64,000 individual sports wagering accounts.
67.9% of these failed checks were attempting to access Tennessee sportsbooks, and 27.7% were trying to access Louisiana sportsbooks.
It’s important to understand that these accounts didn’t give up when they were denied (evidenced by 64,000 accounts tallying 1.7 million geolocation checks). Some likely drove across the border, as Pappas’s testimony also indicated. Some, possibly many, of these denied accounts, are likely betting illegally through a bookie or offshore.
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ICYMI: Smarkets Pullback; Suitability in NH; CO and DFS
Smarkets is pulling back on its US ambitions following a challenging 2022. “Although the past year was filled with obstacles, I am immensely proud of the company’s continued productivity and the efficiencies we have achieved,” CEO Jason Trost said.
An update on the story of New Hampshire casino owner Andy Sanborn, who is accused of misappropriating COVID funds. STTP has been following this story for its relevance to online casino legalization efforts in New Hampshire.
Colorado is the latest state to revisit its fantasy sports regulations. Unlike other states, it looks like Colorado is refining regulations around Pick ‘Em games and not trying to prohibit them.
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Maine Sends a Message
The Maine Gambling Control Unit has fined Underdog Fantasy (a newsletter sponsor) nearly $400,000 for regulatory violations. The issue stems from the company’s Pick ‘Em games.
According to MGCU Executive Director Milton Champion, the player-vs-the-house games violate the definitions of fantasy sports in Maine.
“This is the first of its kind and is setting a precedent,” Champion told Legal Sports Report. “It sets the tone going forward, but any other violations will be looked at separately.”
According to Champion, the fine could have been 20x larger, but he chose to fine the company $50 per offense and not the max of $1,000.
Underdog intends to dispute the fine, telling SBC Americas:
“This is just an initial step in the administrative process, and we now have the opportunity to be heard by the state in the coming weeks and look forward to receiving a final decision that ultimately agrees with our interpretation of Maine law.”
As STTP has been reporting, Pick ‘Em style games are coming under heavy fire, which is creating several threads to follow - more on that here.
A New Affiliate Site for an Evolving Industry
As someone who has been in the affiliate space for 15 years, I’m always intrigued by new entrants and new ideas. SharpLink HQ checks off both boxes and recently caught my eye.
I chatted with SharpLink CEO Rob Pythian earlier this week to get a better idea of the project.
At first glance, SharpLinkHQ.com looks like a standard affiliate site, but delve a little deeper, and the uniqueness of SharpLink HQ starts to emerge. SharpLink has, and still offers, content on league websites. Its games and content were used to drive traffic to betting sites, but Sharplink only received a cut of the league/organization’s affiliate cut. As Pythian put it, “Why settle a third of a third? Why not do it ourselves?”
The site currently has a free-to-play survivor pool, but Pythian said the current site is only about 5% of the vision. A more robust version is expected to be ready sometime in Q1 of 2024, with Pythian even mentioning a $10 million March Madness Bracket contest.
The key, according to Pythian, is a combination of sticky content and integration. For content, Pythian name-checked The Action Network as a model. On the integration front, there are the F2P games, personalized bet tracking, and BetSense, a generative AI solution SharpLink is developing with C4 that is now in a testing phase with SaharaBets.
Pythian described generative AI as a combination of historical data, live data, markets from sportsbooks, and anonymized player data that is blended together to serve users personalized content and bets.
SaharaBets is just the first step Pythian said, “There’s nothing like proof of concept.” And, in keeping with this week’s predictions theme, Pythian believes this model will break through within three years. “There will be one more cycle of breaking rocks, then one perfecting and scaling growth,” and then he believes widespread adoption.
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
What will SCOTUS do? That’s the big question after the Supreme Court denied West Flagler’s application for a stay. In layman’s terms, West Flagler was asking SCOTUS to prevent the Seminole Tribe from relaunching before SCOTUS decided if it would take the case.
Important: The denial doesn’t mean SCOTUS won’t take the case.
As Attorney Daniel Wallach noted, there is reason to believe the Supreme Court will take the case, even though it denied the motion to stay - it takes five justices to stay and four to grant writ certiorari (hear the case).
And here is an excellent explanation of yesterday’s decision and what happens next from the SCOTUS Blog. Oh, and there is, of course, the state court case to consider.
Stray Thoughts
Apropos of the Mississippi hearing detailed above:
“There is no illusion greater than fear.” — Lao Tzu