A Better Betr
After an uninspired start in the US market, Betr is banking on upgrades to its fantasy sports and sports betting products to reverse its fortunes.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: Betr announces upgrades to its fantasy and sports betting offerings; will it be a difference maker?
NEWS: Academic papers paint a very bleak picture of legalized sports betting.
NEWS: Arkansas online gambling efforts are in for a fight.
QUICK HITTER: Kambi quickly throws cold water on acquisition rumors.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Coming soon to the MGC: Limiting bettors the redux.
STRAY THOUGHTS: Poker’s conundrum: Rec vs. Shark and Young vs. Old.
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Betr Makes Significant Improvements on Two Fronts
Betr upgraded its peer-to-peer fantasy sports and sports betting offerings in two interconnected ways last week.
As Chris Altruda wrote for The Action Network:
“Betr announced Thursday that it has launched a "Group Mode" for its peer-to-peer Betr Picks product, following up a soft launch for its enhanced sportsbook product offerings in both Ohio and Virginia.”
“Today's two product launches represent an important inflection point for Betr – Betr Picks will now be available to 65% of the U.S. population, enabling us to welcome millions of new sports fans to Betr for the first time,” Betr Founder and CEO Joey Levy tweeted. “While the new Betr Sportsbook puts us on a path towards ramping investing in this vertical and positions us as having made the most progress towards competing in the Online Sports Betting industry amongst the other market leading fantasy sports pick em' operators.”
The upgraded Betr Sportsbook was soft-launched in Ohio and Virginia, with future launches planned in Indiana and Maryland, where Betr already holds a sports betting license. Levy also said customers can expect more improvements to the sports betting products.
On the fantasy front, in addition to the “Group Mode” announcement, the company announced two new states for Betr Picks: Florida and Massachusetts. The company plans to launch in eight more states soon.
Betr is the latest sports betting operator to upgrade its offerings ahead of the NFL season: ESPN Bet (STTP coverage here) and BetMGM (STTP coverage here) were the others.
STTP food for thought: Some speculate that an enhanced Betr and its ability to build databases in yet-to-legalize sports betting states through its fantasy sports offering make it a ripe acquisition target.
Academic Research Blows Holes in the Gambling Narrative
Since the Supreme Court struck down PASPA in May 2018, I’ve been writing about the inevitability of a backlash to legal sports betting. As the pace of legalization accelerated, so did my warnings of the coming response — which we are in the midst of.
The blowback began in earnest in early 2023 with a series of New York Times articles. Since then, it has been, to quote Jamie Gertz Terri Hatcher on Seinfeld, “real and spectacular.”
In addition to the four New York Times articles, there was an expose in the Wall Street Journal on VIP programs, a seemingly weekly writeup in the Washington Post highlighting the social harms of gambling, the Shohei Ohtani-Ippei Mizuhara and Jontay Porter scandals, and a whole host of criticisms from advertising to increases in problem gambling rates coming from the public.
Legislatures and regulators have also begun asking questions and tightening controls.
And now, the academics are getting involved, with the latest blowback coming in the form of two research papers. Before delving into the findings, it should be noted that these papers are preprints and haven’t been peer-reviewed or published in academic journals to my knowledge.
The first, Gambling Away Stability: Sports Betting’s Impact on Vulnerable Households, concludes (excerpt from the abstract):
“We estimate the causal effect of online sports betting on households' investment, spending, and debt management decisions. Employing household-level transaction data and a staggered difference-in-differences framework, we find sharp increases in sports betting following legalization. This increase does not displace other gambling activity or consumption but significantly reduces households' savings allocations, as negative expected value risky bets crowd out positive expected value investments. These effects concentrate among financially constrained households, who become further constrained as credit card debt increases, available credit decreases, and overdraft frequency rises. Our findings highlight the potential adverse effects of online sports betting on vulnerable households.”
The second, The Financial Consequences of Legalized Sports Gambling, found (excerpt from the abstract):
“Our main finding is that overall, consumers' financial health is modestly deteriorating as the average credit score in states that legalize sports gambling decreases by roughly 0.3%. The decline in credit score is associated with changes in indicators of excessive debt. We find a substantial increase in bankruptcy rates, debt collections, debt consolidation loans, and auto loan delinquencies. We also find that financial institutions respond to the reduced creditworthiness of consumers by restricting access to credit. These results are stronger for states that allow sports gambling online compared to states that restrict access to in-person betting and larger for young men in low-income counties. Together, these results indicate that the ease of access to sports gambling is harming consumer financial health by increasing their level of debt.”
As I’ve been saying for quite some time, good luck countering these claims. I’ll examine the difficulty of overcoming intuitive beliefs in Friday's feature column.
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Good News; Bad News in Arkansas
As I wrote in the latest installment of the Ruddock Report over at Casino Reports:
“Arkansas suddenly appeared on the candidate radar earlier this year when Saracen Casino pushed for regulatory rule changes that it believed would authorize online casino gambling in the state.
“[…]
“Saracen’s efforts fell on deaf ears, but its argument is sound, and the company is now trying to take an inch rather than a mile.
“Saracen Casino has shifted to asking regulators to authorize 50/50 online drawings or raffles, with proceeds going to NIL deals. Saffa explained the new proposal on X as a way to counteract “illegal” operators in the state.”
And here is some good news on the Arkansas front: “I have been approached by a number of state legislators offering to run legislation to authorize this,” Saffa said on Gambling.com’s “The Edge.”
You can watch the full interview below:
And now for the bad news: In a statement provided to Gambling.com, Jim Hudson, secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration, said Saffa’s plans “represent a major expansion of gaming in Arkansas and should not be rushed into without understanding its impact on our state.”
Kambi [Not] For Sale
This morning’s Earnings+More newsletter leads off by saying, “Kambi is the latest name in the betting and gaming supply space to be subject to rumors surrounding its future as the current spate of consolidation within the betting and gaming supply space continues.”
Multiple sources have told E+M Genius Sports has approached Kambi about a possible acquisition.
In a rare move, Kambi addressed the rumors in a note this morning:
Kambi Group plc notes today's media speculation regarding a potential acquisition of the Company
Commenting on these rumours, Anders Ström, Kambi Chair of the Board, says: “While Kambi tends not to comment on rumour and speculation, I can confirm that Kambi is not engaged in any such discussions."
UPDATE: Genius Sports released a similar statement:
In response to these rumours, Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports Limited (“Genius Sports”) (NYSE:GENI) issued the following statement: "As policy, we do not comment on unfounded and ill-informed rumours. To prevent any further speculation, we can confirm that we are not involved in any discussions of this nature with Kambi."
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Today, we should find out how the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will tackle the topic of limiting bettors, which it plans to do on September 11. (h/t to Fair Play Initiative).
Per the MGC agenda, today’s meeting will tackle agenda planning for upcoming meetings, including a scheduled meeting on wager limits on September 11.
For those looking for the backstory, here is an excerpt from my writeup in late June:
“After not showing up for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s first roundtable discussion on limiting and banning bettors, Massachusetts sports betting operators have agreed to attend a second, still-to-be-scheduled roundtable discussion.”
Here is my deep dive into the fallout from the first roundtable.
Prime Sports Joe Brennan Jr. and I also discussed the tension building between operators and regulators in Massachusetts in a podcast episode.
And for those looking for my thoughts on limiting bettors, you can find those here.
Stray Thoughts
We often discuss poker in terms of recreational players vs. sharks, but there is another angle to this story: young players vs. older players.
Take the most recent brouhaha on Poker Twitter about some possibly inappropriate/insensitive content.
As Brad Willis wrote in the most recent The Org newsletter:
“First they came for Tiffany Michelle and canceled her for calling a
recreational player less skilled playerfish a fish. And now they’ve come for Abby Merk andcanceleddeleted her because…wha? We didn’t ask Casino King to chime in, but chime in he did as people began to exclaim OMG They Killed Abby! We’re staying out of it…obviously.”
Some believe this content attracts a new, youthful audience to the game, while others see it as off-putting to women and older players.
Here’s the thing about content: you want it to attract the right type of player, and if you’re a shark, you should want that player to be older, as older players tend to be in better financial shape with more disposable income and less interested in “crushing” at the tables — or whatever the kids call it these days. Younger players are more likely to skew towards the shark side of the sliding scale.
So, while it may not do well on TikTok, content that reaches some older players is way better for poker’s sustainability than content that reaches many younger players.