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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid. We've got Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports
00:09Report with us. By the way, everything that we discuss here with our guest contributors
00:13from Legal Sports Report can also be read over at legalsportsreport.com. Let's bring
00:17in Sam. Sam, thanks again for coming on the show. And let's, you know what, let's just
00:21dive right in. So the big story over the last couple of weeks in the sports betting universe
00:26has been the idea that DraftKings comes out and says that they're going to put a little
00:32bit of a tax on your winnings. Very small amount that you won't notice, although small
00:36bettors notice everything, Sam. I guess the question is with FanDuel's earning report
00:41coming this afternoon, do you think that they will follow suit like DraftKings and also
00:45make the same announcement that they're going to tack on a little tax to some winnings?
00:50Yeah, Craig, if I had to predict what FanDuel is going to do here, I would lean towards
00:55them not doing a surcharge tax like DraftKings has announced in those states like Pennsylvania,
01:00New York, Illinois, and Vermont, where the taxes are above 20%. So essentially, they're
01:06passing that down to the better, like you said, the small charge, but still something
01:10that people are going to notice. You know, it's essentially going to make the pricing
01:13worse after the fact that you place a bet. I would guess that FanDuel wouldn't do that.
01:19It seems like it'd be a good kind of PR move to just not follow suit. It was relatively
01:23unexpected when DraftKings announced this. So it gives you the idea that a lot of companies
01:28weren't thinking about it in the first place. Now, Flutter, the company that owns FanDuel,
01:33has a lot of experience across the world, unlike DraftKings does. So some Wall Street
01:38analysts have hypothesized that perhaps they've tried this elsewhere or contemplated doing
01:43it in other markets. They essentially have more data because, you know, Europe and Asia
01:47have had sports betting legally for a lot longer than the U.S. So they could draw on
01:51that, see if maybe it's worked there. A lot of people are also waiting to see, you know,
01:56if they do it, then is this going to mean that every other company then follows suit?
02:01You know, DraftKings and FanDuel are the two biggest players in the space. So essentially,
02:05if they're able to stay at the top of the market and add these fees, you might think
02:10other books, maybe, why wouldn't we do this? A lot of people are split on how it's going
02:14to impact a company like DraftKings, whether or not it's going to cause those small bettors,
02:19like you said, to go elsewhere to a platform that doesn't have it, or if it's going to
02:24actually make up so much money and people really won't notice. I think we've seen a
02:29lot with the popularity of parlays and the same game parlays and how the pricing has
02:34gotten a little bit worse when you combine some of these, you know, player props together
02:39that maybe people really don't care about pricing as much as you would think. They just
02:43want a better user experience. They want a platform that they're used to. That's what
02:48DraftKings is betting on here. We'll see if FanDuel copies them.
02:51Yeah, I agree. And again, it's a very big story if FanDuel decides to go that route.
02:56We'll check out your social media feed, Sam, and everyone else's illegal sports report
03:00for that announcement coming later today. Meanwhile, deadline for Missouri. Pat and
03:04I talked about this yesterday here on the show to see if sports betting even gets on
03:08the ballot. They've had issues, Sam, over the last couple of years. In fact, Missouri
03:13was one of those states that a lot of people predicted would have sports betting by now,
03:17but they have not for various different reasons. What are the odds this gets done today?
03:21Yeah, I would. I'm pretty confident that this will get done. What's happened here is this
03:26group that went out to collect signatures to get the sports betting initiative on the
03:31ballot has already submitted them. Now they're just waiting on the secretary of state to
03:35essentially verify those signatures, make sure they're all real. There's no duplicates.
03:39It's part of the electoral process. What you should regard today as is just kind of a procedural
03:44step to make sure it goes forward. But when that announces, it's then going to get the
03:49momentum forward for the actual campaign itself to get people on board to vote for sports
03:55betting. You know, it's one thing to get it on the ballot. But then, you know, like we've
03:58seen with California, it doesn't always work out just because you raise all this money.
04:02So you've got companies like FanDuel, companies like DraftKings have raised almost $7 million
04:07just to get this done. And I would say Missouri is probably more likely of a state to legalize
04:12this year than any other year, just because the focus is not as much on other states like
04:18California, states like Texas, states like Georgia. There's really not as many states
04:22left that are so close to legalizing sports betting, at least for a few more years. And
04:27the ones that are left, Missouri is one of the biggest ones out of those states. Like
04:31you said, people have kind of been questioning why it hasn't gotten done. There's essentially
04:35been one senator who has roadblocked a bill every time it gets passed through the House
04:40over an issue with video lottery terminals that he wants to get rid of in order for
04:45the casinos to make some more money. So it's all this political bargaining back and forth.
04:49But now that they're essentially going past the legislature and giving the power to the
04:53people to decide, it's much more likely because you don't have just this guy in the way the
04:59whole time. So I would look for later today. We'll have updates on whether or not it's
05:04going to be on the ballot. And then from then on, you go to the big race between whether
05:09or not people are going to vote for it or not. You're going to have a lot of money spent
05:12on both sides that want sports betting, sides that don't want sports betting. So Missouri
05:16should be a pretty interesting state to watch as far as the rest of the country goes this year.
05:21Yeah. And maybe they get legalized either next year or the year after. And again,
05:25kind of tough to get that all done this year, but we'll see. All right. So let's end with
05:29a earnings call from Sport Radar, a company we're very familiar with here, of course,
05:33at SportsGrid. They posted, I know on social media, some commentary just about their growth,
05:40involved with the UEFA Champions League as well. A very popular company that has really put their
05:45footprint in on a lot of sports betting and just sports entities as well. What have we learned
05:49from their call? Yeah, Sport Radar is continuing to grow their business, whether you're talking
05:55about betting, technology, their media partnerships, essentially trying to monetize
06:00the growth in customer outlook, in people interacting with sports through sports betting.
06:07They did a really good job this past quarter, raising revenue 29 percent, with U.S. leading
06:12the way with 60 percent, which is pretty interesting given the fact that there weren't
06:16that many popular U.S. sports this quarter. You saw a lot more popular sports across the world.
06:22You had the Olympics, obviously. You had the Copa America. You had the Euros,
06:27all sports that get a lot more or events that get a lot more traction across the world. So
06:31the fact that they were able to grow the U.S. so much in what's usually a down quarter for U.S.
06:36sports is a pretty good sign for the rest of the industry, a pretty good sign for the rest
06:39of the companies. They're going to report their calls. So they're going to continue to try to grow
06:45their business that way through more live betting, through more products that they're giving to
06:49partners like the NBA. They just renewed a contract with UEFA to expand how many matches
06:55they offer. So they're really trying to diversify their portfolio with more live betting products,
07:00more innovative kind of solutions to monetize all this engagement that you're seeing across
07:05the world, because it's one thing to have people tune in, but then you have to have companies
07:09that are going to figure out how to get money for all these different leagues. So they had a really
07:13good year in terms of handle as well, with a record $9.9 billion across the world. So you're
07:18seeing betting is up across the board, and they're raising their outlet for next year as well,
07:23really bullish on the continued expansion of the U.S. market. Now that companies aren't necessarily
07:28spending as much on customers, now that sports books aren't necessarily popping up left and
07:33right. You've seen promos cool down with ESPN bet and Fanatics as well, and less state launches. So
07:39it looks to be kind of a period where they're going to really dig their heels in and try to
07:43deliver more growth on the product side, while their customers are able to spend a little bit
07:47more on that and a little bit less on customers. Yeah, and look, some of these companies will keep
07:52an eye on as well. So thanks again, Sam, for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. We'll
07:56catch up again soon. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Craig.