This Week's Sports Betting Update

Hello, this week's edition of our newsletter is sponsored by ICE 2024 , which returns to ExCel London February 6-8, 2024. Grab a coffee, take five minutes and we’ll fill you in on everything you need to know from this week.

One big story?

ESPN Bet goes live across 17 US states

The new Penn Entertainment-operated online sportsbook, ESPN Bet, has formally launched in 17 states across the United States.

ESPN Bet is the output from Penn Entertainment’s new $1.5 billion partnership with Disney’s ESPN, America’s number-one sports media brand. Essentially, ESPN Bet is a rebrand of its former Barstool Sportsbook app, after selling Barstool Sports back to founder, Dave Portnoy, in August.

Penn has exclusive rights to the ESPN Bet brand for a minimum of ten years, with the option to extend this by a further ten years.

Alongside its licensing deal, Penn has also been given share purchase rights with ESPN worth approximately $500 million.

Click here to learn more about a deal that Mike Morrison, ESPN’s vice-president of sports betting, described as five years in the making.

What you need to know

Commercial

• FanDuel and Genius Sports have joined forces to launch NFL BetVision, a new live-streaming solution designed to turbocharge the in-play betting experience. Fans can stream NFL games within the FanDuel Sportsbook app, powered by BetVision, with integrated odds, in-play stats and visual overlays incorporated. More
• Paysafe has been confirmed as a new payment method for users of the Fanatics Sportsbook. Fanatics’ bettors will be able to make traditional card payments and use alternative payment methods like Paysafecash, its barcode-powered online cash solution. More
• Raketech has posted all-time-high revenues in Q3 2023, hitting €21.5m, powered largely by a record organic growth rate of 66%. The Malta-based iGaming affiliate has seen its EBITDA increase by 17% year-on-year, underpinned by its Japan-focused Casumba platform. More
• Aristocrat Leisure has revealed revenues have risen 13% year-on-year in 2023 to AU$6.3bn. The Australian gaming giant has cited its strategic investment and diversification as the main reasons for its rising EBITDA, while some aspects of its profitability are also on the rise. More

Regulation

Licensed operators in the UK gambling industry are doubling down on the Safer Gambling Week 2023, which runs this week. The annual campaign, which encourages iGaming brands to promote responsible betting, covers land-based operators too. The initiative aims to drive awareness of safer gambling tools such as deposit and loss limits. More

Technology

Spotlight Sports Group’s (SSG) Racing Post retail services have been shortlisted for the Digital Transformation Project of the Year award at the RTIH Innovation Awards. SSG has invested heavily in modernising Racing Post’s retail sports betting experiences, including its digital betting shop display and other digital solutions for the retail space of high-street bookmakers. More

People news

Ladbrokes’ Stacey Carnell bags Betting Shop Manager of the Year recognition

Stacey Carnell has been crowned Betting Shop Manager of the Year at the Racing Post and SIS Betting Shop Manager of the Year Awards. Carnell, who manages a Ladbrokes betting shop in Barnsley, becomes the fourth Ladbrokes employee to win the award in eight years.

Carnell has worked in the industry for the last 14 years, serving her apprenticeship as a cashier with Coral before taking the reins as a betting shop manager and moving to Ladbrokes in 2016.

Click here to get the thoughts of Carnell on her award and hear from Joanne Moran, retail operations director of Ladbrokes, on the community role high-street betting shops play in 2023.

This week's talking point

FanDuel’s US market share still boasts a ‘considerable lead’ over DraftKings, says Flutter CEO

Flutter Entertainment’s chief executive, Peter Jackson, spoke as part of the firm’s latest trading update, reiterating the strong performance of FanDuel Sportsbook in the US.

US-based market share remains a hot topic across the gambling industry right now and Jackson moved to allay fears that DraftKings had overtaken FanDuel as the market-leading sportsbook stateside.

Jackson said FanDuel’s full-year figures show it has driven over ￡806 million more revenue than its closest rivals. Putting this even further into context, the revenue differential between FanDuel and DraftKings amounts to 50% of the total revenues posted by BetMGM.

Jackson acknowledged that DraftKings has led the way in terms of gaming but insisted FanDuel was the fastest-growing brand in US gaming.

In the UK and Ireland, Jackson revealed Flutter had grown its customer base by a further 5%, with revenue rising by 11% year-on-year too.

Learn more about Flutter’s performance in the US, UK and Australia, including why the third weekend in September was a very bad day for its UK-facing brands.

This week's insight

The value of responsible advertising in the push for safer gambling

iGaming operators developing a sustainable policy on responsible advertising should first ring-fence users earmarked as ‘susceptible’. That’s the view of Sergiy Shchelkov, sales executive at Epom, who has shared insights into responsible advertising techniques for the iGaming market.

Shchelkov believes all advertisers must consider the demographic that will interact with such advertising, ensuring all content is clearly understood and does not mislead end users.

Geotargeting is also recommended to help exclude inappropriate demographics, as well as frequency capping, to limit the number of times users will see a specific gambling ad within a set timeframe.

Shchelkov says appropriate content within a responsible ad should not be underestimated. This includes focusing ad content on the entertainment aspect of gambling as opposed to a means of succeeding or financial gain.

Click here to get the thoughts of Shchelkov on the future of advertising in the gambling sector, including trends in VR and AI.

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