Take A Chill Pill
Take A Chill Pill
A new report on athlete harassment could revive push to ban player prop bets; Optimism surrounds Minnesota sports betting; and a whole lot more.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: A new report could rekindle efforts to ban college player prop bets.
WEEKEND CATCHUP: Underdog CEO talks balance; Hard Rock Digital to add Kambi’s new Odds Feed+ to platform.
VIEWS: Hopes are high for Minnesota online sports betting in 2025.
QUICK HITTER: How big was G2E 2024?
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Should sweepstakes operators be concerned about class action lawsuits?
STRAY THOUGHTS: Through the front door.
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NCAA Gathers More Ammunition for Player Prop Ban
Per reporting from ESPN’s David Purdum, threats to college athletes are on the rise.
Signify Group was commissioned by the NCAA to analyze the social media accounts of more than 3,000 college athletes, approximately 500 coaches, 200 event officials, and 165 teams during the 2024 College Football Playoff, men's and women's basketball tournaments, men's and women's College World Series, and women's volleyball and gymnastics championships.
A growing concern is “abuse by angry sports bettors,” which Signify says is on the rise since previous studies. “Signify's research on social media harassment in global sports found that angry sports bettors drive as much as 45% of all abuse surrounding some major sports tournaments,” Purdum wrote.
"I despise the idea that we put these kids in the position where people would expect their individual performance to be more important than the performance of their team," NCAA President Charlie Baker said.
Baker said the NCAA is talking with sportsbooks about limiting individual prop bets on college athletes and is working toward other solutions.
The NCAA has asked states to prohibit prop bets on individual players for nearly a year.
As I wrote in April:
The NCAA put player props in its sight back in November 2023 but really ramped up pressure in January when he [Baker] brought it up during the NCAA Convention and, at the same time, sent letters to several states requesting they prohibit the wagers. The NCAA has since called for a nationwide ban and had a hand in creating the Youth Sports Betting Safety Coalition in Massachusetts.
After some early successes (in Ohio, Vermont, Maryland, and Louisiana), the NCAA’s push fizzled out, but the new report will likely rekindle efforts.
While access has likely led to some level of increase in harassment, I struggle to see how prohibiting player props has more than a negligible impact. As I said in July:
People can still bet offshore or with corner bookies, so player props are still readily available, and match-fixers could still approach athletes.
A player’s performance will still impact wagers on teams, so idiot bettors will still blame the player for losing bets.
The correct way to deal with player harassment is to punish the perpetrator. If you’re concerned about integrity, another reason the NCAA has cited, then limit prop bets on college players to an amount that eliminates the threat of match-fixing.
Further, these player prop prohibitions run counter to a separate NCAA Committee’s findings. An NCAA press release following a recent meeting of the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports reads in part:
“CSMAS noted that, in general, prohibitions are ineffective at stopping unwanted gambling behaviors, and there is little evidence to suggest that current prohibitions have effectively prevented student-athlete gambling.”
Essentially, the NCAA is saying that prohibitions will not stop its student-athletes from gambling, but they will stop other bettors from placing wagers on NCAA events.
Weekend Catchup: Underdog CEO Talks Balance; Kambi + Hard Rock Collaboration
Underdog trying to balance growth with startup roots: Jeremy Levine, CEO of Underdog Fantasy (a newsletter sponsor), spoke with Jessica Welman at SBC Americas on a variety of topics, but what really stands out in the interview is the company’s effort to keep the startup mentality during a period of rapid growth — Underdog now boasts 450 employees and 2.4 million active users.
Kambi secures first major Odds Feed+ partner: A newly announced partnership will see Hard Rock become the first significant US sports betting operator to integrate Kambi’s Odds Feed+. Odds Feed+ is a customizable API integration that allows operators “to create their own bespoke Odds Feed+ package, with the freedom to revise on demand,” the press release says. “The addition of Kambi’s odds feed will provide us with a greater range of betting options and more flexibility while still allowing our team to maintain control of our core product, “Matt Primeaux, Executive Managing Director & President of Hard Rock Digital, said. Hard Rock offers mobile sports betting in eight states: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia.
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Minnesota Set to Have Another Go at Sports Betting, But Will This Time Be Any Different?
As Jill Dorson reported over at iGB, “Buried under the news that California tribes could bring a sports betting initiative as soon as 2026 is this: Minnesota's stakeholders have brokered a deal.”
I picked up on the Minnesota talk in Ryan Butler’s G2E reporting:
“Minnesota sports betting proponents have the framework for legal sports betting supported by the state tribes, horse track, charitable groups, and pro sports teams, but the outcome could be upended by the upcoming election, said Andy Platto of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.”
When I continually dumped buckets of cold water on Minnesota’s chances of passing a mobile sports betting (and Maryland online casino) earlier this year, I received several private messages highlighting legislative momentum, brokered deals, and how close the state was to legalization.
I wasn’t sold then, and I’m not sold now.
As I wrote in my Minnesota sports betting autopsy report:
“If you listen to the post-failure chatter, a lot of progress was made, with supporters saying they were closer than they have ever been to passing a sports betting bill. The belief is they can pick up where they left off and carry the framework that “ran out of time” over to 2025.”
But is there really an agreed-upon framework?
“I would highlight that the final compromise is significantly different from the numerous other compromise efforts in 2024, which makes me more skeptical that the deal was a whisker away from passing and just needed slightly more time.”
And as I wrote in a separate column:
Truth be told, I never had much hope for Minnesota this year, and that hope completely disappeared when the HHR issue and subsequent lawsuit against tribal casinos (see the next section).
Like the New York online poker bill that got Gambling Twitter excited, which, as I said yesterday, “didn’t even warrant a mention in my newsletter,” this was inevitable. Lawmakers and supporters will always say there is hope, but if you’ve been around long enough, you know to read between the lines of seemingly positive statements and what the reliable tells are when a bill is about to pass.
So, what went wrong in Minnesota? Nothing. The result was exactly what was expected in a state with significant stakeholder disagreements.
If you want to know why I had/have so little hope, you can read my newsletter entry on “How to Speak Politician.” And if you read Platto’s comments (h/t Buck Wargo at CDC Gaming Reports and the previously mentioned Ryan Butler and Jill Dorson) from G2E, you start to see the familiar words [bolded below]:
“"I'm hopeful" Minnesota sports betting is approved next year with a tribal-approved framework, Andy Platto, Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, said during today's G2E conference.”
“We have a framework that is currently supported by all stakeholders,” Platto said. “This is as close as we have ever come. And I can say is that all current stakeholders (are on board), but that could change.”
“A year from now at G2E, I believe it’s quite possible we will have ended the sports-betting prohibition in Minnesota…”
All of the structural obstacles that upended the bill in 2024 are still in place, and there is a huge unknown, as the results of the November 5 election could change the composition of the legislature and the Governor’s office.
Quick Hitter: G2E 2024 Stats
G2E is always a big deal, but the numbers are always a little shocking when they come out, and 2024 was no different. More than 25,000 attendees graced the halls of the Venetian Expo for G2E 2024.
Per the press release:
“This year, G2E saw an increase in attendance year-over-year, showcased exhibitors from 117 countries, territories, and regions with regulated gaming jurisdictions, and featured more than 100 education sessions.
“The show also expanded its iGaming Zone to 30 exhibitors, and notably, G2E hosted 115 international exhibitors—the most in its 24-year history.”
Attendance has been pretty steady post-COVID, with nearly 25,000 in 2022 and over 25,000 in each of the last two years.
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Class action lawsuits in the gambling industry are a common occurrence. Still, a recent spate of suits against sweepstakes operators, including one in Florida that names payment processor Worldpay as a defendant, shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand:
That statement from Chris Lynch was followed by this news:
State court (and without an arbitration-based defense) is the last place VGW wants to be,” Wallach tweeted. “Reason: The case is much more likely to get past summary judgment and proceed to trial. When forced into state court and stripped of delay tactics, VGW settles rather than fights.”
Stray Thoughts
The Industry has a new buzzword/phrase: The front door.
I keep seeing this phrase pop up, most recently from the mouth of AGA President and CEO Bill Miller during his keynote address on Day 1 of G2E, where he said that, unlike illegal operators, the gaming industry “comes in through the front door,” resulting in tax revenue for local communities.
“We protect consumers, we pay taxes, we provide economic support to towns and cities that other industries left behind,” Miller said. “The illegal alternatives, they’re still a problem. They’re still out there. They don’t subscribe to any of those values.”
Sportrade CEO Alex Kane (a newsletter sponsor), also used the phrase during an appearance on the Straight to the Point Talking Shop Podcast.
On the topic of gray market operators, Kane said:
“There's clearly a lot of ways that games can be played in your market where money is being risked in some way, shape, or form, and it's not my job to opine whether a certain state is going to think that's permissible activity or not.
“It's irrelevant to me. But it creates a platform to say, hey, we want to come do this through the front door. Whether it's sweeps or DFS 2.0, you, as the regulator, are not controlling it, and you are not getting tax revenue on it. So let us come into the market and compete with those players and bring the players that they have back into your regulated market.”