PlayUp's Troubles Continue
PlayUp's Troubles Continue
Plus, the impact of shorter MLB games, trends to watch in sports gaming and ESPN's possible investment from the NFL or NBA.
Happy Friday and welcome to your weekly roundup. PlayUp is facing major problems in New Jersey and Colorado, parsing the effects of shorter MLB games, and sports gaming at your local restaurants or at your vacation hotel. If you enjoyed reading this, please subscribe or share it with a friend. Have a great weekend!
Market Movers
PlayUp stopped accepting deposits and has reportedly stopped withdrawals. The company’s New Jersey site has shut down after its licenses were revoked and Colorado is reportedly investigating the company related to problems with payroll taxes.
What’s next in sports gaming: Per Adam Krejcik and Chris Krafcik, Eilers & Krejcik: 1) Look for operators to partner with restaurants or other sports, tourism or hotel venues (e.g. BetMGM-Buffalo Wild Wings). 2) Disruptive products, similar to what has emerged in casual or daily fantasy sports and 3) More sports, such as Formula 1.
Phoenix Rising FC aims to become the first U.S. “non-major sports entity” to offer sports betting. It’s one of the entities shooting for the three licenses available in Arizona.
Are shorter baseball games affecting betting? Not on volume, according to SBJ. But how people are making wagers is changing—more player props and same game parlays from casual and DFS players are popular now. It’ll be interesting to see full-year data at the end of the season.
Disney is considering selling a stake in ESPN to sports leagues including the NFL, NBA and MLB as it tries to manage the rocky move away from the cable subscriber model to streaming, according to CNBC. The moves could raise conflict of interest questions.
What we’re reading
Ontario’s sports betting handle reached $2 billion in the quarter ending in June.
Black market gambling sites are targeting under-18 Roblox users, who gamble their Roblox items or Roblox’s in-game currency.
U.S. senators introduced an NIL bill that would require disclosure by athletes to universities, and give the NCAA power to enforce NIL regulations—and create a medical fund to cover athletes’ injuries.
The power shift amidst the reshuffling at ESPN.
Overheard
“In the US online gambling space, retail casino brands are getting demolished by two digitally native, sports betting-first brands: FanDuel and DraftKings… Are retail casino companies taking the OSB opportunity seriously enough? And could their early efforts in US OSB — in which they’ve increasingly ceded product and market share supremacy to their aggressive, digitally native rivals — come back to haunt them?” — Adam Krejcik and Chris Krafcik on the current U.S. sportsbook landscape.
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