What's In A Name?

Maverick Gaming plans on creating the biggest poker room on the East Coast at Bally's Casino in Rhode Island, and turning its name into a lifestyle brand.

Jul 16, 2024

NEWS: Maverick Gaming is teaming up with Bally’s to create the largest poker room on the East Coast.
LEGISLATIVE and REGULATORY UPDATES: Missouri sports betting initiative; More sports betting fines; A new era in DC; OK sports betting.
NEWS: Unlike sports betting, the US online casino market is getting more competitive.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: DraftKings is growing at a faster clip than FanDuel (sports betting), and FanDuel is growing faster than DraftKings (iCasino).
VIEWS: New York online casino legalization has support, but it’s not the top gambling priority.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Thoroughbred horse racing coming back to Massachusetts?
STRAY THOUGHTS: My most popular podcast guests (so far): #6 - #10.

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Twin River Poker Room Gets a Rebrand Following Maverick Gaming Deal

The Bally’s poker room at its flagship property in Lincoln, Rhode Island, will soon undergo a rebrand and, from the sound of it, a significant expansion.

The project stems from a partnership between Bally’s and Maverick Gaming.

According to Maverick Gaming CEO Eric Persson, he expects the finished poker room to become the largest on the East Coast, which would be a massive room, considering the Foxwoods poker room boasts over 100 tables plus a separate tournament area (but with diminishing traffic and rumors of the room shrinking in the future). Borgata’s poker room comes in at around 50-something tables.

The current Twin River poker room has 16 tables.

It’s also an interesting time to step into the Northeast poker market, where there isn’t a shortage of good-sized poker rooms: Mohegan Sun (33 tables), Encore Boston Harbor (24 tables), and MGM Springfield (15 tables), not to mention the many charity cardrooms in New Hampshire.

In an interview with Poker.org, Persson described the challenges and opportunities poker presents, as well as his vision of turning Maverick into a lifestyle brand that has a reach far beyond poker enthusiasts:

“For operators, poker can be very profitable but also challenging. It’s labor-intensive, it takes niche expertise. Our position is, we will manage poker with you: we will bring our team, our expertise, some of the big star names that are part of Maverick, and we will make poker pain-free for you.
“We'll either manage the room, or we'll collaborate with you as consultants to help you think about marketing, tournaments, bad beat jackpots, what your rake should be, what your daily tournament schedule should look like.”

Legislative and Regulatory Updates: MO Sports Betting; More Fines; A New Era in DC; OK Sports Betting

The latest on the Missouri sports betting ballot initiative: The Missouri sports betting ballot initiative has been billed as a professional sports-led effort, but as Covers.com’s Ryan Butler reports, “As of the May 15 quarterly report, FanDuel has contributed just over $4 million to support the ballot measure. DraftKings had added $2 million.” Combined, the two companies have “contributed almost all the roughly $6.5 million raised to support the sports betting measure.”

Full story from Covers.com

Fines, fines, everywhere there’s fines: Fines are not uncommon in the gambling industry, but a few recent ones are worth mentioning. First, FanDuel received a tiny $2,000 fine for accepting 34 bets on PFL fights that had occurred a week prior — the company had to pay out $230k to settle the bets. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Fanatics received a $15,000 fine for a $2 parlay bet that included a leg with a Massachusetts college.

Two new Washington DC mobile sportsbooks are (almost) open for business. Yesterday, BetMGM and Caesars planned to join FanDuel in the Washington DC sports betting market, officially ending Intralot’s controversial monopoly. The launch plans hit a slight snag, as Mayor Muriel Bowser has yet to sign the budget that opened the market to other operators — the deadline is July 25. The new target is by the end of July. To launch a district-wide mobile sportsbook, an operator must partner with one of DC’s professional sports teams — which Caesars and BetMGM have already done.

Oklahoma sports betting still has a long way to go: Matthew Morgan, Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association chairman, said despite Gov. Kevin Stitt’s public push, there is little appetite to legalize sports betting among Oklahoma tribes. “Any discussion of sports betting really never left the ground after that because there was just too much posturing, too much disagreement on how the industry worked,” Morgan told the Oklahoma Voice. Morgan also said the 25 tribes in his organization have had little contact with the legislature or Gov. Stitt.

Full story from the Oklahoma Voice

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Q1 2024 Market Share: iCasino Not as Consolidated as Sports Betting

According to estimates from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (a newsletter sponsor), FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM had a combined 78% market share in online gambling (sports and casino) in Q1 2024.

While very top-heavy, the estimates run counter to the narrative that the market is consolidating; in Q1 2023, the same three operators controlled more than 80% of the market.

The Top seven operators saw a similar year-over-year decline per EKG, going from a combined 92% market share to 89%.

However, BetMGM has taken the brunt of the hit, with a 5% YOY decline. DraftKings and FanDuel have extended their lead (DraftKings has gained market share while FanDuel’s share was relatively flat) over the Bronze medalist. If we zoom in on just the Top 2, FanDuel and DraftKings increased their combined market share.

On the other side of the spectrum, Bally’s and Penn are gaining market share.

As recently noted, more recent gains appear to be coming from Caesars and Bally’s:

“Per EKG, Caesar's updated app (previously covered on STTP) is driving its gains, while Bally’s all-time high market share (at 2%) was due to organic growth in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and its online casino monopoly in Rhode Island.
“Since its March launch, Bally’s Rhode Island casino has generated $6.1 million in GGR in just under three months. May was its best month at $2.25 million. In New Jersey, Bally’s pulled in $8.5 million in May.”

Beyond the Headline: DraftKings vs. FanDuel

According to EKG, in Q1 2024, DraftKings’ total online gambling revenue growth outpaced FanDuel by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

Interestingly, DraftKings is gaining in sports betting, while FanDuel is gaining in online casinos.

FanDuel’s online sports betting dipped 4% year-over-year in Q1 2024. DraftKings grew its overall market share by 6% over the same period.

On the online casino front, in Q1 2024, DraftKings gained two percentage points YOY, while FanDuel’s share grew by 4%.

New York Online Casinos are Waiting in Line

Texas casinos, California mobile sports betting, and New York online casinos. Those are the gambling industry’s Holy Grail, White Wail, and Philosopher’s Stone. Long sought after, seemingly attainable, but always just out of reach.

Over the next three days, I’ll examine each of these efforts, beginning with online casinos in New York.

A decade. That’s how far back efforts to legalize online gambling in New York stretch. Online poker efforts dominated the first half of that timeframe. More recently, poker has taken a backseat as the conversation has shifted to online casino gambling.

Over that time, the state authorized brick-and-mortar casinos (twice) and individually legalized and regulated daily fantasy sports, retail sports betting, and mobile sports betting.

There are plenty of possible explanations for online gambling’s struggles, but one of the overlooked reasons is the one-thing-at-a-time approach that New York and many other states often take.

If that’s the case, it will be at least another two years before online casinos and poker are seriously considered, as the state is in the process of awarding three downstate casino licenses.

Online casinos may have to wait until the licenses are issued (and the likely lawsuits and bribery claims are dealt with), which looks increasingly like it will be well into 2025. And it could be even longer, as lawmakers might want to see the impact of the three new casinos on existing gambling. That means no serious online casino talks until the casinos are built/expanded/upgraded and open their doors.

That said, if we don’t consider retail betting in California a win, New York is the most likely of the three states outlined to give the industry something to cheer about.

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Around the Watercooler

Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.

A fascinating look at the horse racing landscape in Massachusetts from Mike Mutnansky’s MutStack newsletter outlines the recent efforts to bring thoroughbred horseracing back to the Bay State.

“Remember when Sterling Racing, the owners of Suffolk Downs, wanted to bring racing back to the Great Barrington Fairgrounds? Or when Stronach Racing was going to work with Tim Ritvo to build a New England racing hub in the Leominster/Lancaster area?
“As recently as last year, it looked like Great Meadowbrook Farm in Harwick, MA, was set to be the site for a new Massachusetts racing and breeding facility before the residents in that town voted strongly against it.”

As Mutnansky reports, the latest effort is happening in Gardner, courtesy of Bay State Racing, which is hoping to bring “a year-round equestrian facility with activities that would include thoroughbred racing and wagering; agricultural and equestrian festivals; a breeding program; training facilities and therapy programs for individuals in recovery.”

Of course, there is also opposition, which is a big part of why there hasn’t been a thoroughbred race in Massachusetts in five years.

Per Mutnansky:

“As a racing fan following this from afar, it seems like there is much more opposition than support for this plan from Gardner residents. There are even Gardner City Council members who are opposed to the plan but voted ‘yes’ to a meeting so that the residents of Gardner can have their say.”

Give the MutStack newsletter a look if you’re interested in sports betting from the bettor’s perspective or anything Boston sports-related: