The Magnificent 7
Ring, ring, its 7 AM... Seven companies have applied for North Carolina sports betting licensees. Most are familiar names, but there is one very intriguing wildcard.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: North Carolina reveals the first seven sports betting license applicants, with a planned launch around March Madness.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: Underdog’s transition to sports betting.
HOLIDAY CATCHUP: A few stories you may have missed during the holiday break.
VIEWS: Japan’s slow crawl toward resort casinos.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: What’s the average person’s view on sports betting?
STRAY THOUGHTS: Be Elite.
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Seven Sportsbooks Apply for North Carolina Licenses
The North Carolina State Lottery Commission has revealed the first batch of seven applicants for a North Carolina sports betting license.
They are Bet365, BetMGM, DraftKings, ESPN Bet, Fanatics, FanDuel, and Underdog Sports.
BetMGM, DraftKings, and Underdog have not announced a partnership deal with a professional sports team or venue (a requisite for a North Carolina license).
Bet365 is partnered with the Charlotte Hornets.
FanDuel has partnered with the PGA Tour.
ESPN Bet has partnered with Quail Hollow Club (a PGA tour venue).
Fanatics has unofficially announced a partnership with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The state can support up to nine licensees, as the following teams and venues are still without a sports betting partnership:
Carolina Panthers
North Carolina Courage
FC Charlotte
Charlotte Motor Speedway
North Wilkesboro Speedway
Caesars applied for a supplier license, which, as Steve Bittenbender points out, is likely due to its operation of two tribal casinos in the state.
The application process is still open in North Carolina, but future applicants cannot go live on opening day.
Regulators will now have the unenviable task of poring over thousands of pages of applications with a (moving?) target launch date around March Madness.
Beyond the Headline: Not Like the Others
The surprise applicant is clearly Underdog (a newsletter sponsor).
Setting aside the current fight over DFS 2.0 games, Underdog has been very clear that its ultimate aim is sports betting.
In an October interview with SBC Americas, co-CEO Jeremy Levine said the following:
"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.”
Underdog’s slimmer and sleeker product (and the product of other DFS 2.0 companies like PrizePicks) certainly resonates with customers, which is causing some of the friction between DFS 2.0 operators and their forerunners, DraftKings, and FanDuel.
As Chris Grove has noted, “Wherever you fall on this topic, it’s essential to understand that the pushback against DFS+ is driven mainly by anti-competitive motivations.”
Grove has also noted, “The deep irony here is that FanDuel and DraftKings risk making the same mistake the casinos made with their antagonistic reaction to DFS - a mistake that cost casinos the US online gambling market.”
With Underdog’s shift to sports betting, Grove’s warning seems to be coming true.
Of course, DraftKings, FanDuel, et al. will likely continue to follow the already-trodden path and challenge Underdog’s suitability for a license, considering the negative AG opinions and legal gray area of DFS 2.0.
DraftKings and FanDuel are very familiar with this argument from Illinois, where entrenched casino interests tried to get them labeled as bad actors and, therefore, ineligible for a sports betting license. That fight got extremely messy, but eventually, DraftKings and FanDuel were permitted to operate in the state.
Holiday Catchup: NH Casino Owner Loses License; Ohio Lottery Hacked; NBA Approves Mavericks’ Sale
Embattled New Hampshire casino owner Andy Sanborn has a decision to make after an independent examiner sided with the state lottery commission, revoking his license and shuttering the Concord Casino. The casino can open in six months if Sanborn sells his ownership.
Hackers hit the Ohio Lottery on Christmas Eve, which “experienced a cybersecurity event affecting our computer systems. Upon learning of the issue, we took precautionary steps to protect our environment, including disconnecting key systems to contain the issue.”
The NBA has approved the sale of majority ownership in the Dallas Mavericks to the Adeldsons. The chatter is focused on the Mavericks, but underneath the surface is the possibility of a destination casino, which Cuban said he would be “As active as I need to be because I think it’s the right thing for the state of Texas.”
Japan Tries to Dethrone Massachusetts
I often point to my home state of Massachusetts as an example of a jurisdiction that took an excessive amount of time to legalize and open casinos. But Massachusetts has nothing on Japan.
Massachusetts legalized casino gambling in 2011, and following a failed repeal effort in 2014, the state’s first casino, a slot parlor in Plainville, opened its doors in 2015. the two resort casinos would take several years longer, with MGM Springfield opening in 2018 and Encore Boston Harbor in 2019.
Japan legalized casino gambling in 2018. The first casino isn’t expected to open until 2029 if everything goes as planned. The Osaka proposal is also the only approved integrated resort proposal, as the Japanese Tourism Ministry recently rejected a proposal in Nagasaki.
So congratulations, Massachusetts. You’re no longer the standard bearer. As Global Gaming Businesses Roger Gros put it, that honor now belongs to Japan:
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
It’s always interesting to me to step outside the sports betting-gambling bubble and see what non-gamblers think of the current state of affairs. SPOILER: It’s often very negative, as seen in the replies to the tweet below.
This came from the account of a real estate guy with 6,000 followers. 265 comments, 250 retweets, and 650k views later, this is an excellent thread to see how the typical person views the rapid expansion of sports betting in the US.
Stray Thoughts
For no reason other than this being one of the funnier satire accounts I’ve accidentally stumbled across on X:
