Gambling in the USA

American pro sports leagues hedge their bets on legal gambling

Published

7 years ago

November 29, 2017

In court, all four major U.S. sports leagues are fighting New Jersey’s challenge to the federal ban on sports gambling, which the Supreme Court will hear next month.

Outside of court, leaders of three of the four leagues have made public comments that suggest they wouldn’t mind losing the case. Only the NFL has been steadfast in its opposition to gambling, a stance that critics see as hypocritical, especially as the Raiders plan a move to a billion-dollar stadium just off the Las Vegas Strip.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case that could lead to the federal ban on sports betting being struck down, the leagues are hedging their bets — preparing for a future of expanded gambling and hoping to have a say in how legalization takes effect.

The NBA and Major League Baseball see gambling as something that could enhance fan interest and open up new revenue opportunities. However, the leagues insist that appropriate regulations should be put in place to prevent corruption — something that a court ruling in New Jersey’s favor wouldn’t do, at least not right way.

Much has changed since 2012, when the leagues and the NCAA sued New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to stop him from legalizing sports betting at the casinos and racetracks in his state. At the time, MLB and the NBA were led by old-school commissioners who bore the scars of gambling scandals in their leagues, including Pete Rose in baseball and referee Tim Donaghy in basketball. Baseball’s Bud Selig said in a deposition that gambling was “evil, creates doubt and destroys your sport.”

Selig and the NBA’s David Stern have since been replaced, respectively, by Rob Manfred and Adam Silver, both of whom have taken a fresh look at gambling.

Silver argued three years ago in a New York Times op-ed that sports gambling should be legalized. Manfred said earlier this year that gambling “can be a form of fan engagement, it can fuel the popularity of a sport” — and he raised the prospect of people betting during games on whether the next pitch will be a strike. He’s also said MLB wants a seat at the table if Congress considers legalization.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said gambling isn’t a major concern because so little money is wagered on hockey compared to other sports. The NHL this season became the first major U.S. league to place a franchise in Las Vegas, where sports gambling is legal, and the NFL will follow in 2019. For the past several years, the NFL has also played games in London, where people can bet on sports online. Commissioner Roger Goodell has conceded that his position on the issue has “evolved.”

“I think there are multiple signs of the sports leagues, including the NFL, taking a fresh look at this issue. You don’t place a team in Nevada, in Las Vegas, without an understanding that the issue is changing. Frankly, you don’t play games in Wembley Stadium, where most of the people in the stands are betting on their phones during the game, without an understanding that things are changing,” Geoff Freeman, CEO of the American Gaming Association, told The Associated Press. “For those that want to see sports betting, the trajectory is in their favor.”

“The NFL teams have invested in daily fantasy sports even though the NFL itself hasn’t. It’s just so inconsistent,” Pallone said. “How do you make the case and say that’s not gambling?”

New Jersey is challenging the constitutionality of the federal ban on sports betting that Congress approved in 1992. The ban only allowed sports betting in the four states that had previously authorized it, and only Nevada’s law at the time allowed bets on individual games. In Delaware, casinos offer parlay bets on NFL games.

“I go through Delaware and they allow it, and I come to my own state and they’re not allowed to do it. It’s just ridiculous,” Pallone told AP. “I think there’s a good chance that the court is going to say you can’t say to one state they can have sports betting and another state that they can’t, and then dictate what state has what.”

Opponents maintain that state-sponsored gambling preys on vulnerable people and creates a variety of social ills. A coalition of anti-gambling and religious groups argued in a brief that legalized gambling would open the door for casino companies to further “target and exploit the financially desperate, exacerbate crime, cultivate addiction, and force even those citizens who rarely or never gamble to foot the bill for the enormous social costs and state budget problems they leave behind.”

While legal sports books could entice more people to place bets, the practice is already widespread. The AGA estimates that Americans bet $150 billion on sports annually, and only 3 percent of those bets are made legally.

The technology that allows more people to place bets has also enabled data collection that makes game-fixing more difficult because suspicious betting patterns can be seen in real time. With most pro players making millions, it’s unlikely they would risk careers and jail by throwing games.

Game-fixing is much easier to stop and prosecute in countries with legal betting than in places without it, said Andreas Krannich, an executive at Sportradar, a London-based gambling security firm.

“In a well-regulated market, the risk of manipulation is less,” Krannich said, because bookmakers “participate in the detection and the follow-up of criminal cases.”

The leagues are concerned that the Supreme Court could allow sports gambling to become legal without those protections in place. NBA spokesman Mike Bass said the league “prefers a comprehensive federal approach to legalized sports betting, as opposed to a hodgepodge of state-by-state laws.”

If the court rules against the leagues, it would be up to the states to regulate gambling themselves until Congress steps in.

“The integrity of the games — and I know from my discussions — is the No. 1 priority of the leagues,” Freeman said. “We share that desire for integrity. I think increasingly, people recognize that the surest way to guarantee integrity is in a regulated market.”

George Miller

George Miller (Gyorgy Molnar) started his career in content marketing and has started working as an Editor/Content Manager for our company in 2016. George has acquired many experiences when it comes to interviews and newsworthy content becoming Head of Content in 2017. He is responsible for the news being shared on multiple websites that are part of the European Gaming Media Network.

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Gambling in the USA

Boom In 2021 March Madness Wagering Reflects Expansion of Legal Betting Market

Published

4 years ago

March 24, 2021

George Miller

Boom In 2021 March Madness Wagering Reflects Expansion of Legal Betting Market

Online sports betting operators are set to see record-breaking wagering on March Madness this year.

The three-week long, single-elimination, seven-round NCAA college basketball tournament got underway in Indiana on March 18 and runs until the Championship final on April 5.

The dramatic growth of sports betting popularity over the last two years has been attributed to the ever-expanding US legal market which has seen 14 new legal jurisdictions open up and offer legal sports gambling. This equates to almost 74 million more Americans being able to safely and legally bet on March Madness this year.

The latest state to offer sports betting was North Carolina which went legal on March 18 just in time for bettors to get involved in the March Madness action.

17.8 million say they will place a bet online, up 206% from 5.8 million in 2019.

According to a report published by the American Gaming Association (‘AGA’) $8.5 billion was gambled on March Madness in 2019 by 5.8 million people.

With 45% of American adults now living in a state with legalized sports betting the number of people doing their March Madness betting online is expected to top 17 million in 2021.

Offline bets are also estimated to increase this year with the number of Americans placing their college basketball bets at brick-and-mortar sportsbooks nearly doubling.

March Madness Key Dates:

March 18-19: First Round
March 20-21: Second Round
March 25-26: Sweet 16
March 27-28: Elite Eight
April 3: Final Four
April 5: National Championship

2021 March Madness Wagering Estimates

47.4 million American adults are expecting to bet on March Madness this year. That’s more than 20% of the population!

Although that’s about the same number that indicated they would bet on the tournament in 2019, the number of people betting with a sportsbook is set to rise dramatically.

Other key findings reported by the American Gaming Association:

30.6 million Americans expect to place more traditional NCAA March Madness bets with sportsbooks on this year’s tournament, up from 17.8 million in 2019.
8.3 million expect to place a bet at a physical sportsbook, up 79% from 2019.
36.7 million Americans say they will fill out a bracket, down 8 percent from 2019.

Bill Miller, President and CEO, American Gaming Association said “The sports betting landscape has changed dramatically since 2019 – and as a result, tournament betting has transformed. With more legal, regulated options than ever before, millions of customers now have safer ways to enjoy all the fun and suspense only March Madness provides.”

This year, due to the global pandemic, the tournament will be held entirely in a single state (Indiana) with the Championship final game scheduled for April 5 at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

According to Vegas-Odds.com futures betting data from online sportsbooks – the teams most likely to take home the Championship trophy are the Gonzaga Bulldogs (+170), Baylor Bears (+375) and the Houston Cougars (+800).

More March Madness Facts & Stats:

Gaming analysts Eilers & Krejcik estimated that if all 50 U.S. states had legal online sports betting, sportsbooks would handle $15.2 billion in total bets for March Madness alone, grossing about $1.2 billion of revenue.
Interest in this NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is up slightly from 2019 with 26% of Americans saying they are very interested in March Madness, compared to 23% two years ago.
Regulated Vs International Sportsbooks : $3.9 billion of bets will come mostly by way of international websites and bookmakers, though 4.1 million people will also place legal wagers through licensed U.S based casinos & sportsbook operators.
The betting odds of predicting all 63 March Madness games correctly is 1 in 9.2 quintillion!
The longest winning streak of NCAA tournament bracket picks to start the March Madness tournament stands at an astonishing 49, with an Ohio bettor correctly predicting the entire 2019 NCAA tournament into the Sweet 16 stage.

casino

California to compete with Las Vegas

Published

7 years ago

December 22, 2017

George Miller

Casino operators in California are investing in the business to be able to compete with Las Vegas.

Casino operators in the State of California are innovating the market to strengthen its potential and be able to compete with the neighbouring city of Las Vegas, the most renowned gaming hub of the country. According to a recent study, 27 percent of tourists in Las Vegas come from the state of California.

Therefore, local native tribes that operate casinos in the region decided to further invest in innovative gaming services for residents and boost the regional economy. The operators are planning to improve current casino services by adding “integrated resorts, complete with shops, restaurants, spas and various other entertainment activities.”

Katherine Spilde, director of Sycuan Institute on Government Gaming at San Diego State University, explained: “The tribes are really responding to a mature tourist market.” And added: The integrated resort is the evolved model of gaming where the gaming is just one part of the larger experience.”

Meanwhile, the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians has recently held a pre-inauguration event celebrating the upcoming casino in California. The ceremony was held last Monday and authorities lifted white beams containing the signatures of tribal members, casino employees and construction workers to the top of the frame of the six-story hotel.

Gambling in the USA

Pollard Equities Limited to support Scientific Games/NYX Gaming merger

Published

7 years ago

December 21, 2017

George Miller

Canadian investment firm, Pollard Equities Limited has announced it has reached an agreement with NYX Gaming Group and Scientific Games Corporation to support the proposed acquisition of NYX by Scientific Games for $631m.

A shareholders meeting to discuss the proposed acquisition is scheduled for the 20 December in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The acquisition can proceed if a majority in number of NYX shareholders present and voting, either in person or by proxy, represent at least 75% in value of the NYX ordinary shares held by those NYX shareholders present and voting, either in person or by proxy (excluding those shares already held by Scientific Games) or by a simple majority of the votes cast by the holders of NYX ordinary shares.

At present Pollard Equities Limited owns 8,621,300 ordinary shares of NYX and 4,000,000 warrants having upped its number of warrants last month in a CDN$120,000 deal bringing its potential stake in NYX Gaming up to 11.2%.