The Big Picture
Four days of G2E broken down into three themes: Where are the ideas coming from? What happened to responsible gambling? And, are you ready to rumble?
The Bulletin Board
VIEWS: A G2E retrospective, including my three themes from the show.
NEWS: Florida sports betting is officially, if temporarily, on hold following an order from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
NEWS: NCPG inks partnership with Mindway AI to integrate Gamalyze into the NCPG’s responsible gambling website.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Sports Betting Twitter thinks it’s an online poker forum.
STRAY THOUGHTS: Was Dillon Danis vs. Logan Paul celebrity boxing’s jump the shark moment?
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The Big Picture from G2E 2023
I was not at G2E this year - the newsletter is far too young for me to skip a week. With that said, I followed the reporting closely, and from across the country, there were three themes that emerged.
Theme #1: The industry is looking for big ideas from little places.
Unlike its preferred customers, the gambling industry is very cautious, with a “don’t rock the boat” mindset. It’s external pressure that forces change.
Most of the time, the industry will fight it kicking and screaming, but the current moment necessitates change, considering the rapid expansion of numerous forms of legal gambling and the appearance of many gray products.
As such, I think the industry is more than happy to let it happen on the edges, where they can watch from afar before lining up behind their preferred idea and, in doing so, avoid any blame.
Theme #2: Despite recent non-stop attention, RG felt like it was sent to the backseat at G2E.
Focused responsible gambling was strangely missing from the G2E coverage. I saw plenty of lip service paid to RG and PG from the big-name CEOs, but RG-dedicated sessions either didn’t happen or were glossed over.
The biggest RG news was the launch of GuardDog by newsletter sponsor Underdog Fantasy, which backs up Theme #1, that the industry’s big ideas are coming from the periphery.
Theme #3: We are entering an era of infighting.
And speaking of Underdog, its brouhaha with the OG DFS operators is just one strand that has me thinking the industry isn’t as cohesive as it has been in the recent past.
Disruptors, or whatever you want to call them, always have a target on their back. Still, the current situation feels somewhat different, as it’s the most recent disruptor that is calling out the current batch
The usual suspects have been quiet on the issue (at least publicly) and are also trying to separate themselves from the online-focused free-spenders in their midst as they have a lucrative land-based empire to think about and possess more wisdom on where this is all potentially heading if the advertising and marketing aren’t reined in. Not to mention the tension that has been created with tribal gaming interests in California and Florida.
Right now, the comments are fairly moderated, but I can sense the tension brewing under the surface.
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Florida Sports Betting Case Reaches SCOTUS
The Supreme Court of the United States has taken its first action on the Florida sports betting case, with Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily granting West Flagler’s request for a stay in the case - West Flagler hasn’t officially filed a writ of certiorari with the SCOTUS but committed to filing it by the November 20 deadline.
The Department of the Interior has until 5 PM on October 18 to respond. That response will help determine if the SCOTUS keeps the stay in place.
Wes Flagler said the appellate decision raises three questions:
“… whether IGRA authorizes the federal approval of a compact that purports to allow a tribe to conduct gambling activities off Indian lands.”
“ … whether the UIGEA is violated when an Indian tribe uses the internet to offer gambling in locations outside of its own lands, and in the territory of a state where such gambling is unlawful."
“… whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution is violated by a federal government approval of an IGRA compact in which a state gives an Indian tribe a statewide monopoly to conduct online sports gaming.”
Attorney Daniel Wallach went through these points (and others) in an exhaustive thread on X.
And my previous coverage of the Florida sports betting case can be found here.
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Responsible Gambling’s New AI Tool
After signing a strategic partnership with Mindway AI, the NCPG has a new RG tool in its toolbox, Gamalyze. Gamalyze (which you can mess around with here) will soon be integrated into the NCPG’s ResponsiblePlay.org website.
Per the press release:
“Gamalyze is an award-winning, gamified reinvention of the self-test designed to identify risky gambling behavior and draw insights from neuroimaging, providing personalized interventions to individuals who may be at risk of developing gambling-related problems.”
“Education plays a pivotal role in preventing gambling-related harm,” NCPG’s Executive Director Keith S. Whyte said. “The integration of Gamalyze into ResponsiblePlay.org will empower visitors with an innovative tool to help them make well-informed choices about their gambling behavior.”
So, what is Gamalyze? It’s a tool that asks users to pick 80 cards from four decks at random. The user is expected to recognize patterns in the decks, higher variance, or negative outcomes. Gamalyze judges how well the user picked up the patterns and how close to their expected value they were.
The site claims a round of Gamalyze takes three minutes, but it’s a long three minutes and a somewhat boring process (which it has to be for the user to pick up on patterns) that might be a fun experiment in a math class. That said, I don’t know how interesting it will be to gamblers.
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Some drama is taking place on Sports Betting Twitter (a place known for drama), as one of its leading protagonists/antagonists, Captain Jack, has deleted his Twitter account and is taking a break from pretty much everything:
This seems to stem from community discourse, with a strong resemblance to old poker forum drama, but all appears to be okay.
From Unabated co-founder Rufus Peabody:
The replies to the above tweet are interesting, with people lining up to support and blast Captain Jack. My own experience with him is that he is more receptive and open to discussions in DMs than his public persona (which I often disagree with), and I’ve had many good, productive conversations with him.
Stray Thoughts
I like the first season of most reality shows. I think it’s because neither the participants nor the viewers really know what to expect. As these shows wear on, they become more predictable, often relying on manufactured storylines for shock value.
Following the Logan Paul-Dillon Danis fight(?), celebrity boxing matches are entering Season IV.
In a previous newsletter, I explained the fascination with these fights.
I think that when certain activities are done at the highest level, they become increasingly boring.
Why is a karate kata competition a blip on the radar, but a floor routine in gymnastics or a figure skating program is must-see TV? Because karate kata competitors don’t make glaring mistakes at the highest level, the difference between first and last place is barely perceptible to a casual sports fan. With gymnastics and figure skating, you see the falls and near-falls. You see or are informed that one technique is more challenging. High-level karate kata all look the same; only diehards can spot the differences.
So maybe boxing (and, to a lesser extent, the UFC) is becoming boring at the highest levels as the top athletes’ skill sets continue to merge… Go down a few rungs on the skill ladder, and things look more attractive. That helps explain the interest in Jake Paul-type fights, where the defense isn’t impeccable. And, of course, the spectacle of it all and the sizable number of viewers wanting to see Paul get KO’ed.
The problem is that authenticity is disappearing from these reality TV fights. The participants are just selling tickets and collecting a paycheck, and the audience knows what to expect. It is either a boring fight where the hand-picked person fighting outside of their discipline is outclassed, or it’s little more than a glorified sparring session.