Meet The New Boss; Same As The Old Boss
Penn-Barstool has a new sports betting app, but is the migration from Kambi to theScore tech platform going to change Penn's online gambling fortunes in the US market?
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: A look at the new Barstool Sportsbook: Better, worse, or the same.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: Is Barstool ready to embrace affiliates?
NEWS: States have questions about the “new” DFS products.
NEWS: ICE is moving to Barca.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Palps are back, baby!, No House Advantage in financial straits, and Kentucky ops are choosing 21+.
STRAY THOUGHTS: The US online gambling market is not what I expected.
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Meet The New Barstool
Penn Interactive has fully migrated the Barstool Sportsbook from Kambi to theScore’s proprietary platform, and Penn is highly bullish on the new app.
CEO Jay Snowden calls it a “milestone achievement,” adding. “Having full control of our product and roadmap will lead to improved operational efficiency and the ability to quickly introduce new features, bespoke promotions, and wagering markets… which better positions us to compete in the online gaming space.”
Eilers & Krejcik lead product tester Danny McCarthy tested the new app using the company’s standard scoring matrix and slightly boosted it to 15.8 out of 20 – the Kambi app scored 15.6. Per EKG, the app would rank 6th out of 40. That is far from an earth-shattering change.
However, the new app improved in two areas casual bettors care about, as EKG found the app more aesthetically pleasing and much easier to navigate.
Beyond the Headline
A new, slightly improved platform isn’t going to hurtle Barstool into DraftKings-FanDuel territory. It’s unlikely to even get to BetMGM or Caesars-level in the near-term. But Penn-Barstool has a proverbial ace up its sleeve that it has yet to play: Affiliate marketing.
Penn-Barstool has taken a unique marketing approach, relying on Penn’s internal database and Barstool’s significant social media presence. It has done very little mainstream marketing and spurned affiliate marketing.
With the migration to theScore, it’s likely time for Barstool to, as Tom Green would say, Unleash the fury!
There are signs that Barstool may be ready to do just that.
DFS Crackdown: Version 2.0
The daily fantasy sports industry came under fire in 2015-2016, and that scrutiny led to DFS legalization (with a few locales taking the opposite approach). And now DFS is under fire again. For anyone interested in what occurred back in 2015-2016, you can find an excellent summary here.
The major players have largely moved on to sports betting, leaving the DFS market to newer entities offering a new line of DFS products – products that strongly resemble prop betting. And now, DFS is once again being placed under the microscope.
Wyoming, Maine, and Alabama have sent notices to several DFS companies.
Maine: Maine specifically singled out Underdog Fantasy (a sponsor of this Newsletter). “It’s a generic notice that you could be in possible violation, and we don’t get into anything specific,” Maine’s chief regulator Milton Champion told Legal Sports Report. “We’ll see what they come back with and deal with accordingly. I don’t know what our position [on potential punishment] is.”
Underdog sent LSR the following statement: “We have offered games in Maine since 2020 under a license that has been renewed by the state in each year since, and we pay all applicable taxes. As we do in all states, we will continue to work with Maine officials to ensure our games adhere to local regulations while providing sports fans the opportunity to play the Underdog games they love.”
Wyoming: In a letter to UnderDog and PrizePicks, the Wyoming Commission said: “Specifically, your business purports to offer fantasy sports contests but, in reality, the offering appears to fall under the exact definition of “sports wagering”… This offering may violate Wyoming’s gambling laws...”
Alabama: In Alabama, UnderDog and PrizePicks have altered their offerings after a request from the Attorneys General office. Per Sports Betting Dime, “Currently, users in Alabama can no longer include squares with individual athletes in their selections. Customers must use the combo squares.”
UnderDog also responded to Sports Betting Dime: “We were glad to work with the Alabama Attorney General, who decisively interpreted the state’s daily fantasy sports law as allowing both peer-to-peer and our pick’em single-player fantasy contests. We’ve always maintained a fantasy sports license in the state, which the state has renewed multiple times. We’re continuing to offer pick’em with the Attorney General’s approval, with only relatively minor adjustments. We look forward to continuing to make our pick’em game and future game formats available to Alabamans.”
This is the strange thing about US gambling laws. What is and isn’t legal gambling can change overnight on the whims of those in power. That statement lacks nuance, but it’s essentially the case, as states have sidestepped longstanding precedence by relabelling things as skill games or new delivery channels rather than gambling expansions.
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ICE Moves From London To Barca In 2025
There are two leading tradeshows for the gambling industry, G2E and ICE (IGA is fast becoming a third). G2E attracts around 25,000, ICE around 40,000, and IGA around 10,000.
Throughout its 22-year history, G2E has called Las Vegas home. ICE has also had a consistent home base. The First ICE (then known as the National Casino Forum) was held in 1991 in London, as has every iteration since, with the event taking place at ExCel in London since 2013.
Beginning in 2025, ICE (International Casino Exhibition) will have a new home, Barcelona, after the city was selected from a shortlist of Madrid, Paris, and London.
London received a consolation prize, with Clarion Gaming announcing the iGB Affiliate Conference will move from Amsterdam to London in 2025.
And here is a little something I penned last year that still very much applies: 3 Tips To Maximize Your Global Gaming Expo Experience (G2E 2022)
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip. And there’s a lot to get to today.
A Virginia teacher thought he had a windfall when several Women’s World Cup bets hit. But the wagers were soon canceled by BetMGM, which cited an “obvious error” with the odds - known in the industry as a palp, or palpable error.
@joebrennanjr wondered what would have happened if the error favored the book.
While 888’s @VaughanLewis1 pointed to non-betting situations where a price is typically not honored.
Dealing with palps is a pretty settled business in Europe, but the US is still trying to figure out how to deal with them, including a very high-profile situation in New Jersey.
And then there is the story of a DFS company that appears to be in financial straits (the full story can be found at Legal Sports Report).
And over in Kentucky, despite allowing 18+ bettors, operators are limiting it to 21+. As @RLinnehanXl points out, the decision is likely for a variety of reasons.
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Stray Thoughts
I was on the frontlines when Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey became the first states with legal online gambling in 2013. Ten years later, I struggle to understand how the US market reached this point.
How did poker (which drove legalization in the early days) become so easily discarded while DFS, another peer-to-peer game of skill, was legalized and regulated at lightning speed?
Why is it critical to protect sports bettors from unscrupulous offshore operators but not poker and online casino players? And why, if consumer protections are a priority, did so many states pass laws with complete disregard for the consumer (be it responsible and problem gambling or operator transparency)?
How can we have so many jurisdictions with legal online gambling options, yet no one wants to learn from the successes and mistakes to create easy-to-implement universal standards?
Why are there so many green gaming regulators who don’t know the difference between a parlay and a parfait?
Someone, please make it make sense.
Author note: Straight to the Point is a one-person show at the moment. Apologies in advance for any spelling or grammatical errors.