Bally Bet's Expansion and Sports Betting Market Updates
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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid, Jim Gazzale usually joins us here on the show
00:06on Fridays, but he's just so excited, he's got so many stories to bring us, we thought
00:10we would bring him on, on the midweek edition of the show.
00:13Hey Jim, great to have you back here on Newswire, we're going to dive into some news in Tennessee,
00:17Colorado, we'll also hit on some Maryland news as well, thanks for coming on, great
00:20to see you.
00:21Yeah, yeah, thanks for having me a few days early this week, Craig.
00:24Why not, is what we always say.
00:26Alright, so, you know, I find it fascinating, I saw you post this yesterday on social media
00:29that Bally Bet, who's, I don't know if it's fair to say beleaguered, but they just really
00:34haven't made any progress after being one of the first sportsbooks to launch several
00:37years ago, have now launched in Maryland.
00:40So what's the thought process behind this, while some of the exterior sportsbooks, fair
00:45to say, not ranked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, are pulling out, looks like Bally Bet pushing forward
00:50a little bit in Maryland.
00:51How did this come together?
00:52Yeah, they have, you know, to your point, had a little bit of trouble gaining traction
00:58across the country, really, now available in nine markets with the launch of Bally
01:05Bet in Maryland yesterday, and like we've talked about in the last couple of weeks on
01:11the show, Craig, there's been a little bit of a, you know, market shakeup, if you will,
01:15in Maryland, where we've seen a couple of sportsbooks leave, and a couple of sportsbooks
01:21enter the market.
01:23Superbook and Betfred recently announced that they'd be leaving the Maryland sportsbetting
01:29market, whereas VSC is joining, or has joined the Maryland sportsbetting market, and Better,
01:37the micro-betting platform, is expected to join the Maryland market in the coming months
01:44as well, and like I said off the top, Bally Bet joining that market yesterday.
01:49Now, when we kind of look around the country, nine markets now for Bally Bet accepting sports
01:58wagers, a handful of them do break out operator-specific metrics, so we do have some eyes on their
02:06performance in other markets, and, you know, their strongest market right now is Indiana,
02:13where they've earned about 1% of all market handle.
02:20That's the highest of any of the markets that we can see.
02:24There's a couple of other markets.
02:27New York, they have 0.2% of overall handle since January 2022, when that New York market
02:34opened up online, and in Ohio, interestingly enough, also 0.2% of handle there.
02:42That market, of course, opened January 23, and one interesting note out of Ohio is that
02:48Bally Bet has given out more in promos than it's made in revenue.
02:54So just a couple of, you know, states where they're struggling to gain a foothold, gain
03:03any real traction, but they did launch in Maryland yesterday.
03:08They launched in Massachusetts recently as well, and, you know, as we know, DraftKings,
03:13their hometown market being based in Boston, really has a tight hold at the top of that
03:19market in terms of handle.
03:22So it remains to be seen what kind of traction Bally Bet will be able to make in Massachusetts.
03:27We'll get a good idea of that in the next couple of weeks when their July revenue report
03:33comes out.
03:34Probably about mid-August, we'll see Bally Bet's performance in Massachusetts, but, you
03:38know, they're live now in nine markets and, you know, performing not all that great in
03:44any of them, Craig.
03:45Yeah.
03:46No, and that's why it's sort of weird, I guess, for me to see, but look, again, you know,
03:52some of these sportsbooks, even though they're not doing so great, they're still trying.
03:55We got to give them credit for that.
03:56All right.
03:57So some violations and some fines given out in Tennessee.
04:00I saw this story on Legal Sports Report a few days ago, and it's pertaining, Jim, if
04:05I'm not mistaken, the fines are during soccer and pertaining to fines on specific penalties.
04:12You're going to have to tell us a little bit more about how that works.
04:15And, you know, I sort of can, I mean, I guess I can kind of understand how the sportsbook
04:18operators may not have the familiarity as much and the regulators with betting on penalties
04:23and things like that.
04:25So how did this all happen?
04:26Why did they get fined?
04:27And specifically, is it just because of them having penalties available on their sportsbook
04:32to bet on?
04:33Yeah.
04:34So that's essentially it, Craig.
04:35And, you know, as you know, each state has kind of different approved wagers and things
04:40that customers are allowed to bet on.
04:43So in Tennessee, betting on the number of penalties given out in a soccer match is a
04:50prohibited wager for bet MGM.
04:53That option was available to players in Tennessee, and several of them worked those bets into
05:00two same game parlays on some recent soccer matches.
05:03And Tennessee sports betting regulators slapped bet MGM with a $25,000 fine for doing so.
05:11Two other operators were fined for allowing excluded players to deposit and access their
05:20account and place bets.
05:22That was Action 24-7 and ESPN Bet.
05:27Action 24-7 was fined $18,000, and ESPN Bet had two violations that were, you know, involving
05:37excluded players.
05:38One was sending marketing materials to players on that self-exclusion list, and another was
05:45allowing a self-excluded player to access their account.
05:49And, you know, all told, those two violations cost ESPN Bet about $12,000.
05:55Now, what I found interesting was, you know, again, just how each state sort of has the
06:00different approved and allowable bet types and things you can wager on.
06:07Tennessee also does have, you know, pretty strict fines for these violations.
06:13I've covered several other state regulatory fine stories over the last couple of months,
06:19and Tennessee's did seem to be the most expensive.
06:23And if you recall, a couple of months ago, we talked, Craig, about some Indiana sports
06:27betting violations also involving some self-excluded players, also including Bet MGM,
06:35as a matter of fact.
06:36And those were only a couple of thousand dollars.
06:38So, not rising to the same level of, you know, financial, you know, the same financial
06:46level as they are in Tennessee, but, you know, across the industry landscape, Tennessee sports
06:53betting regulators do issue probably some of the steepest penalties for these violations.
06:59All right.
06:59Now, finally, let's cap off with maybe the biggest success story in sports betting this
07:03year from an individual state.
07:05Colorado, Jim, off the charts in terms of revenue growth.
07:09I wonder if we'll be talking about them at the end of the season.
07:12Yeah, it was a really positive June for Colorado sportsbooks in terms of revenue.
07:17You know, I think the biggest thing I was able to glean from the report that they put
07:21out yesterday was the simple fact that the Denver Nuggets didn't win the NBA Finals this
07:26year, $28.2 million in sports betting revenue for operators in June.
07:33And that was up from $9.2 million last June when the Denver Nuggets went all the way to
07:40the NBA Finals.
07:41And like we've talked about plenty of times over the last year, Craig, when that local
07:46team wins a championship or goes deep in the playoffs or has a big success around a high
07:53profile event, the sportsbooks tend to take a bath in that state.
07:57And that was the case last year in Colorado when the Nuggets won the NBA Finals.
08:02This year, the Nuggets bowed out of the playoffs in May.
08:06So the Colorado sportsbooks were then able to enjoy a 205 percent boost in that monthly
08:13revenue total.
08:15Overall, basketball bets accounted for the second most betting volume in June, despite
08:25the Nuggets not being in going deep in the playoffs.
08:28Baseball was number one.
08:30Parlay betting also very popular throughout the month in June, like we've seen pretty
08:38much in most markets across the country, like we talked about last week, Craig, with the
08:42Louisiana sportsbooks cashing in quite well on those parlay bets.
08:48So Colorado, a lot more of the same, Craig.
08:51All right. Well, Jim Ghazali with us, weighing in, as he will next week.
08:55Thanks again, Jim, for coming on the show.
08:57Great to catch up with you.
08:58Thanks for the updates.
08:59All right.
09:00Thanks, Craig.