Is Disney Wagering on a BIG Expansion into Sports Betting?
This Gambling News Flash article looks at Disney & ESPN as they look to get in on all the sports betting action.
What does Disney have to do with sports betting?
The ultimate goal in all this? Disney wants to use legal sports betting in order to promote and strengthen the struggling ESPN+ streaming service.
But just last year in a Legal Sports Report Article, Disney CEO stated…
“I don’t see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way,” said Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Company. “Getting into the business of gambling, I rather doubt it.”
But new CEO, Bob Chapek took over for Bob Iger last year and the company had a sudden change of tone. Disney has not been thrilled with the idea of jumping into the gambling world in the past, but now feel that legal sports betting can bring in a younger audience and improve overall service.
CEO Bob Chapek hinted that Disney intends to break into the sports betting industry…
“Strategically, what sports betting gives us is the ability to appeal to a much younger sports fan viewer, who can be very strong in their affinity for those sports,” said Chapek.
In August, Disney was in talks to license its ESPN brand to casino operator Caesars and DraftKings. Nothing is finalized, and the deal sources valued at $3 billion could fall through, but the move is an indication of adding gambling to the Disney franchise.
Disney, ESPN Explore Sports Betting Options
Pretty much everyone is getting into sports betting these days. Needless to say, it’s no surprise that the Worldwide Leader in Sports wants a taste.
There had been rumors this past week that they were pulling away ESPN+ from its Disney streaming service in preparation for shifting ESPN more into gambling. Of course, if they are moving into betting, they’ll want to set up clear boundaries between ESPN and the 21+ activities, and the young audience that’s into Disney content.
For now, it’s unclear where ESPN is going next but a report on CNBC indicated that they are “pursuing further value in sports betting”. ESPN’s ratings have been in decline over the last few years as other streaming services have popped up.
Moving into the sports betting space would likely give their brand a big shot in the arm and push revenues to new heights. It feels like it’s only a matter of time before they partner with a betting brand or create one themselves.
Gambling News Flash – MGM in the Gaming Industry Limelight of Late
This week’s casino news is strictly MGM-focused. They’ve been in the news for all sorts of good reasons, so let’s get you up to speed.
MGM Resorts Expands Their Grip On Las Vegas Strip
MGM Resorts is expanding their footprint in Las Vegas. While they already have a number of properties on The Strip, they’ve now purchased The Cosmopolitan. The deal put them out a good $1.625 billion but it is a lot cheaper than the original $5 billion price tag that the property owners were originally hoping for. The reason for the significant drop in price is because Blackstone – the previous owners – will remain the land lords of the property.
MGM and Blackstone will be in a 30-year agreement that will be split up into ten-year increments. In total, Blackstone will receive $200 million in annual rent payments and could potentially haul in around $6 billion in rent by the end of those 30 years.
This deal for the Cosmopolitan will be finalized before the second half of the 2022 year. Everything is expected to check out as these two companies have worked together multiple times in the past with zero issues. Now MGM gets to run a prime property in the heart of The Strip, right in City Center.
MGM Resorts Donates $500K To Urban Farming Initiative In Las Vegas
Speaking of MGM Resorts, they’ll be giving back to the community via an urban farming initiative they’ve launched. The company donated half a million dollars to the Las Vegas Historic Westside in order to fund an urban agricultural farming facility.
The Historic Westside area has been hammered by food shortages for years now and this new farming facility could help overcome those difficult challenges. The Westside was just one of many communities picked for this program during 2021 and should allow residents cleaner and safer food options.
Westside has had a rough past. They were wildly segregated during the 1950s and even into the 1960s. African American residents were allowed to work in casinos but couldn’t visit them on their own if they wanted too. Some blame desegregation for the economic decline in their area while others believe it is the best thing they could have done since that time. While many people frown upon gambling and gaming companies, this is one of the positive sides of working with these types of brands. They have tons of money to pass around and in this case, they’re using some of it for a good cause.
MGM Resorts Picked By Osaka
MGM Resorts has some good news to share: they officially told all of their investors that Osaka has picked them to create a phenomenal integrated resort development in the city. The early budget for this exciting new casino was originally listed at $9.1 billion but since being picked they have increased that total to $10 billion. They believe that Osaka and Japan are the perfect places to settle down and build a great new casino, which is why they don’t want to hold back during the creation. Of course, building and operating in Japan has been a bit of a marathon and many other suitors dropped out. MGM endured through it all and they’ve been rewarded.
The president and CEO of MGM, Jim Murren, has frequently visited Japan and Osaka to show how committed their company is to the region. This is likely a strong factor in being picked for this development.
As it stands right now, an MGM operated Osaka resort could bring in 20 million annual visitors to the property. They could employ up to 15,000 people, which will be a big boost to the local economy. And being one of the first to open in Japan, this resort is definitely going to be one that will be talked about for generations once its built.
NHL Investigation On Kane Throwing Games Has Come To An End
Responsible Gaming Week just passed and one big story that we’re tracking will highlight just how important it is to play within your limits. Let’s start off with some news updates involving Evander Kane and his betting scandal, then we’ll touch on the August revenue numbers from the state of New Jersey.
NHL Determines That Kane Didn’t Intentionally Lose Games
NHL forward Evander Kane has admittedly not had the best year or two, but at least he’s been cleared of a crime that could have cost him his NHL career. An NHL investigation examining accusations that Kane was purposefully losing games for his team in order to fund his gambling addiction has been completed.
After a deep dive, the league determined that there wasn’t any evidence to support that he was doing this.
Kane isn’t out of the woods just yet, though, as he is still sidelined from training camp while the team handles other accusations made by his wife about sexual and physical abuse.
Gambling has been a big problem for him as he is currently in tons of debt right now due to that his addiction and currently faces an unbelievable $26.8 million hole. What is even more shocking is that he compiled those charges less than three years from when he signed a massive seven-year, $49 million extension with the San Jose Sharks.
New Jersey Revenue Reaches $426 Million During August
The gambling market in New Jersey is showing strong signs of recovery right now. Their revenue totals from August have been reported and the numbers are impressive. They wound up being $426.7 million, a 31 percent increase in year-over-year. However, those numbers are a bit of a decline from July when they brought in $450.6 million in total.
Atlantic City was a massive part of last month’s success, bringing in $262.4 million of the $426 million that they earned. In July, Atlantic City only brought in $199.1 million. Although, iGaming has taken a giant leap in the last couple of months.
In July, all online casinos were able to total $118.7 million, a state record. The previous record was set earlier this year in March when they got $113.7 million. Sportsbooks were also critical to New Jersey’s recent success, accounting for $52.03 million from bettors in August.
iGaming & Sports Betting in the United States About to Reel in $40 Billion
This week’s casino news starts off in Osaka, Japan where MGM Resorts has won the rights to build a casino. Let’s take a closer look at that and at the revenue numbers of sports betting and igaming in the US.
Sports Betting And iGaming In The United States Could Hit $40 Billion in Revenue
Speaking of untapped markets, iGaming and Sports betting in the United States – which is just starting to grow legally – could reel in $40 billion in revenue per year. While those numbers sound lofty, they are merely considering the fact that many states haven’t legalized the pastimes yet, so there is ample room to grow.
Sports betting revenue has already increased 435 percent compared to last year with New Jersey leading the charge. With the football season underway as well, that number is projected to jump even higher. DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM are all among the sports betting operators that are bringing in the most revenue.
iGaming is also going to be taking a nice jump. Projections say that they could increase up to $14 billion in revenue by the year 2033. As it stands right now, they are only at $1.5 billion.
MGM Resorts Winner Of Osaka Casino Rights
MGM Resorts were able to become the last company standing in the race to place a casino in Osaka. After partnering with Orix, they gave themselves an edge in the competition and it apparently worked out as Osaka has chosen to go ahead with MGM. Back in July, there were announcements that a $9 billion casino concept was planning to be placed inside the city’s Yumeshima Island.
Osaka wasn’t really left with many options in this race, though. They opted to be really choosy and a lot of other companies decided to drop out of the running. A lot of other competitors chose to pass after rising concerns regarding the tax and regulations placed in the city. The time that it was taking for Osaka to officially choose an operator also killed a lot of their enthusiasm towards the project.
According to a recent announcement, MGM Resorts and Orix are both expected to own 40 percent of the integrated resort. The remaining 20 percent will be split out to other Japanese companies. However, if those companies aren’t involved, both MGM and Orix will float up to 50 percent each. They hope to make lots of money in what many people feel to be one of the ripest gambling markets in the world.
Atlantic City Casinos See Dip in Revenue During August Compared To 2019 Numbers
The latest numbers out of Atlantic City are out and it appears that the casinos in the area weren’t able to keep up with their revenue numbers pre-pandemic numbers. Their nine brick-and-mortar casinos in the state were able to get a total of $262.4 million that month. Compared to their revenue numbers back in August of 2019, they are down 8.4 percent. They are also down 5.3 percent from their July numbers.
However, those numbers take a big jump once you include iGaming and sports betting. Those numbers shoot up al the way to $397.6 million, $58.8 million more than the amount August brought in during 2019. As a matter of fact, it represents a 17 percent increase.
Despite the solid numbers that Atlantic City casinos are bringing in right now, they are still very much in the search for more employees. Hard Rock President, Joe Lupo, said, “We’ve been looking for people all summer long…we’re looking to continue providing some jobs to the local community.” Hopefully they are able to fill the positions that they are looking for and take another jump in their operations. If you’re looking for a job, Atlantic City is the place to be.
Gambling News Flash – Sports Betting Coming To Texas?
Sportsbooks and casinos in the United States continue to make moves. In this week’s news, we’re examining a number of partnerships that took place, including one in Indiana and a first-ever type of deal in Texas.
PointsBet Partners Up with Austin FC
PointsBet Sportsbook is continuing to expand its footprint. Even though sports betting is not legal in the state of Texas, they are still moving in there to get an early jump marketing-wise.
PointsBet has partnered up with Austin FC of Major League Soccer, so expect to see the branding on their gear soon. The company is now going to be the official sports betting partner of this new soccer club and will be promoted all over their new stadium.
It’s the first sports betting partnership created in the state and the first entry into the MLS for PointsBet. However, PointsBet is going to have to wait quite a while before this move could end up paying off.
Despite Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, pushing heavily for sports betting to be legalized in the state, lawmakers just aren’t sure whether they want to go through with new laws to change that at the moment. Other big states such as California and New York could see their markets get launched within the next two years, but early estimations point towards Texas not getting serious consideration for legalization until at least 2023. When the floodgates do open up, though, PointsBet is hoping customers flock to them due to the brand awareness.
Atlantic City Casinos Fall Eight Percent Compared To 2019 Numbers In August
Casinos in Atlantic City have been doing everything in their power to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have had some strong numbers lately and are approaching the pre-pandemic revenues they had back in 2019, as a matter of fact.
Atlantic City casinos were able to reel in a total of $262.4 million from their nine brick-and-mortar properties during the month August. When you include sports betting and iGaming in Atlantic City, their numbers drastically improve. They would eventually round out to $397.6 million, nearly $60 million more than what they were able to bring in during August of 2019.
A lot of people stopped going to the brick-and-mortar properties due to COVID concerns, which is why their online offerings have been so profitable lately. The land-based losses have been offset by the online success, which has sped up the whole recovery process.
Caesars Entertainment, WynnBET Inch Closer To Sports Betting In Indiana
The topic of sports betting in Indiana has been a bit of a touchy subject of late. The Indianapolis Colts initially weren’t in favor of heading that direction but have since made some moves to convince everybody otherwise.
They have now partnered up with Caesars Entertainment and the very next day, they did the type of deal with WynnBET. Both deals have some different aspects in them as Caesars will get naming rights to a lounge in the Colts stadium along with being named the official casino of the organization.
Meanwhile, WynnBET received naming rights to their official tailgate area called Touchdown Town. They also got branding rights for a sports bar in the upper levels of the stadium.
Each of these companies are hoping that these new deals can get them exposure throughout the entire Indiana area – especially in a place where so many sports fans go. WynnBET, in particular, has already been doing everything they can to spread the word about their brand. You may have seen some their advertisements, which now feature Shaquille O’Neal and Ben Affleck.
Americans REALLY Love Sports Betting… Like A LOT!
While the gambling industry has the momentum of a freight train, a number of auxiliary businesses are also benefiting. One of those is legally betting on NFL games. That’s where we’re starting our weekly recap of the news.
Americans Bet $20 Billion on NFL Games This Season
The early estimates are out for how much Americans will be betting on the NFL this season. The numbers suggest that Americans will gamble over $20 billion dollars throughout the 2021 campaign. The news has resulted in a spike in the stock price from several companies, including Caesars Entertainment, Penn National Gaming, and DraftKings. Their stocks have increased over 20 percent this past month.
The NFL season opener between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys brought in more than 1.5 million wagers alone. DraftKings had to dish out roughly $54 million to their players that night due to an opening-night promotion.
Ironically, the league has long been against any type of sports betting but has now welcomed it with open arms. Although, the last couple of years the gambling industry has seriously taken off, which has caused the NFL to change their opinion.
Some predict that companies may be in a bit of trouble if bettors continue to win their wagers. DraftKings Sportsbook, for example, is only expected to pick up around 13 percent in total shared throughout the next year.
NBC Sports Seen Huge Ad Demand from Sportsbooks
We’re now through two weeks of the NFL season and from the business side, one thing is clear: advertisements slots on NBC Sports have been heavily sought after. The league already approved DraftKings, FanDuel Sportsbook, and Caesars Entertainment to be their official sportsbook partners and they’re wasting no time plastering every broadcast with ads. Other companies such as WynnBET, BetMGM, PointsBet and FOX Bet have all been given the same status and are allowed to run ads during NFL games as well.
These advertisements aren’t cheap, meaning these companies really want to capitalize on this recent gambling boom in 2021. The average cost of an advertisement during Sunday Night Football was $712,300 back in 2019. A number that is likely higher nowadays given how those 2019 numbers were seven percent higher than in 2018.
Look for a lot of new sportsbook operators to fight their way to a slot in the Super Bowl as well. DraftKings became one of the first to advertise in the big game, but others should be following suit in 2022. Companies are doing their best to get in front of as many eyes as possible to build brand awareness and attract customers.
Governor Charlie Baker Wants Legalized Sports Betting in Massachusetts
The New England Patriots have officially started their new season but fans in Massachusetts still can’t bet on their games. That has caused the governor of the state to speak out about the lack of sports betting. Governor Charlie Baker tweeted out that it has been too long since he started to push for legalized sports gambling in Massachusetts and aims to get it finalized as soon as possible.
Baker went on to say that he was happy to see the Patriots back in action but definitely wanted to use this as a motivating factor moving forward. He claims that they were able to file a bill to legalize sports betting all the way back in 2019 but that ended up falling through. They tried again earlier in 2021 but it doesn’t appear to be on track right now either. Baker finished up his tweet by saying that Massachusetts’s neighbors in the United States have been benefiting too much from their lack of a gambling market. This might be the push they needed to get them over the hump.
Live! Casino & Hotel being sued by Ocean Casino Resort… For What?
Online sports betting is coming to Connecticut and Puerto Rico and Philadelphia casino property is being sued. Those are two of the main headlines we’ve been tracking in this week’s second installment of the NJ Gambling News.
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Philadelphia Property, Live Casino, Being Sued by An AC Casino
Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia has gotten themselves into quite the predicament. Ocean Resort Casino was just able to file an official lawsuit against the property because they believe that their slogan was copied and used for financial gain.
- Live! is right in the middle of a marketing campaign themselves, which is centered around the phrase “Let’s Go for the Win.”
- Ocean Casino had a similar marketing campaign slogan with their “Go for the Win” phrase.
Ocean Casino had invested $140,000 into that marketing slogan a while back before then dropping another $1.5 million to get that slogan plastered all around the area. Ocean is looking for damages but there hasn’t been a determining asking price at the moment. They are also asking Live! to take down all advertising regarding their slogan, which they used on billboards and television commercials.
Online Sports Betting In Connecticut Misses NFL Start Deadline, Aiming For October
Anybody who has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sports betting market in Connecticut may be in for a good surprise. It has just been announced that state regulators could get the new market set up in the very near future. Originally, the hope was that things would get fired up before the start of the 2021 NFL season. As it turns out, online bettors in Connecticut might have to wait a little bit longer as it looks like October is now the start date that’s being targeted. The regulations for the new sports betting bill were reviewed by the Regulation Review Committee with a vote afterward that ended up resulting in favor by a 9-4 margin.
The reason this bill was able to get launched so quickly was that their governor, Ned Lamont, had listed it as an emergency regulation. Because they were passed as such regulations, the state of Connecticut could end up changing some of its rules within the next six months.
Also, state regulators decided to allow each player to register just one credit card to their account if they want to. This has been a bit of an issue lately, but it seems they have come to a final decision on the matter. However, both Venmo and PayPal won’t be supported.
BetMGM Partners with Casino del Mar In Puerto Rico
Another day, another sportsbook wins a license in a new region. However, this one is groundbreaking as no other sportsbook had opened up shop in Puerto Rico just yet.
It was a historic week for BetMGM and Casino del Mar in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They were able to work together in order to get mobile sports betting into the area. It is going to be the first agreement like this to happen outside of the United States in history and could open the door for many other potential moves.
BetMGM positions themselves in a great position by entering Puerto Rico as the population there is a lot bigger than a couple of states that were on their horizon. Puerto Rico is home to 3.28 million people, far more than New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Arkansas.
This move was a massive win for Puerto Rico as they weren’t able to get their sports betting regulation process finished before the start of the MLB season. The miss ended up hurting their revenue numbers quire a bit due to the popularity of baseball there. However, this could end up making up for those losses in the long run – especially with football on the go.
Gambling News Flash – Facebook Looking To Get In On The Sports Betting Game
Is Facebook moving towards sports betting? That’s the recent speculation after they announced that they’re launching a free-to-play to test the waters. That’s where we pick up our weekly recap of the news.
Facebook Close to Introducing Fantasy Sports And Predictive Games
Facebook Fantasy Sports? Well, well, well: look he’s jumping into the sports betting space. Facebook has decided to jump right into the fantasy sports world as the social media giant had partnered up with Whistle Sports to bring a new category called Pick & Play Sports, Facebook Fantasy Sports. Players will get points as they correctly pick the winner of a specific sports game or go into smaller in-match events. While this starts off as a fantasy option, we’ve seen how this can quickly turn into sports betting. FanDuel and DraftKings have already shown the way.
Facebook is also expected to bring in games involving popular television shows such as The Bachelorette and Survivor and even BuzzFeed is supposed to get their own segment in the coming weeks. These new games will be available on both iOS and Android devices and for any residents in the United States and Canada.
Facebook hasn’t mentioned whether or not cash prizes will be awarded to the top players in these games, though. It seems like their new platform is going to be based primarily around user interaction and good times rather than financial gain. However, if they do see that players are craving that – as they likely will – the speculation is that they will look into adding it.
DraftKings Reaches Settlement With Gamblers
DraftKings is moving towards settling a court case in regards to misleading advertising. The company has announced that they were able to get approval in the last distract of Massachusetts on their massive settlement of class action reports. People had claimed that DraftKings Sportsbook was misrepresenting the difficulty of their sports contests and the terms to certain promotional deals during their marketing campaign. The settlement to get this all behind them had ballooned all the way up to $8 million dollars.
The settlement had involved a total of about 3.15 million people. Without a doubt getting out of this mess that they had gotten themselves into will be a big weight off their backs.
Hochul To Be Friendly To Sports Bettors?
The newest governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, and her husband have been under the microscope lately after she took over for Governor Andrew Cuomo. While there are all sorts of questions as to what she’ll do for the state, there has been early speculation that she’ll be quite friendly to sports betting. She and her husband had apparently spent thousands of dollars to lobby state officials before she was promoted. One claim has them giving $300,000 to lobby Bolton-St.Johns throughout 2019 to 2021, which is a gaming hospitality brand.
A lot of people in the state of New York are hoping that Hochul will be friendly to sports betting. While the state of New Jersey has been very progressive in opening up its doors, New Yorkers are still struggling with it. Maybe she’ll be able to get things on the fast track as Governor Cuomo definitely wasn’t a friend to online sports betting.
WynnBet Tabs Affleck For Ads
WynnBet is breaking out the big guns. The company, which is a little late to the online sports betting party, has brought on Ben Affleck for its first round of commercials. Along with Shaquille O’Neal, the hope is that the company will be able to get a lot of attention and start bringing players over to its platform.
WynnBet will be shooting a variety of ads with Affleck, some of which will be longer in the two-minute range and others that will be 30 seconds and short both for television and social media.
Gambling News Flash: Atlantic City Casinos Have Another Amazing Month
This week’s casino news starts off in Atlantic City where the July revenue report has been released. After a long, trying year, a lot of people around the boardwalk have to be pleased with the numbers that have been announced.
Atlantic City Casino July Numbers Soar
After 15 incredibly difficult months, Atlantic City casinos are finally thriving again. Gaming regulators announced that the casinos on the boardwalk have picked up $276.9 million in gross gaming revenue, which is less than one percent away from their total back in July of 2019. In that month, they reeled in $277.1 million. These casinos haven’t even been close to nearing that mark up until this past month as the pandemic has ravaged tourism in the area.
Online casinos were reportedly responsible for bringing in $118.6 million, which was a massive 35.7 percent increase when talking about year-over-year revenue. It is also a brand-new monthly record in gross revenue, surpassing the previous record of $113.7 million.
The recovery isn’t officially successful just yet, though, as we are going to have to see more positive results in August. Of course, now the Delta variant is being passed around, so it’s unclear if we’ll get past the COVID-19 pandemic or not. However, early results look good as there were around 38,000 people headed to Atlantic City during a three-day Phish concert, so that was a big boon to the area.
Spieth Strikes Deal With FanDuel
One of golf’s most popular players is partnering up with sports betting giant FanDuel Sportsbook. Jordan Spieth is one of the most recognizable faces in the PGA Tour right now and decided to start working with the NJ gambling website, FanDuel. The agreement lets FanDuel use Spieth’s image to promote their sportsbook and he is even going to be appearing in their upcoming commercials.
In return, FanDuel plans on doing everything they can to support the Jordan Spieth Family Foundation, which hones its efforts on helping out military families, special needs children, and junior golf. The PGA has been focusing a lot of their attention to sportsbooks lately, seeing a number of their players and tournaments strike deals with FanDuel, BetMGM, PointsBet, and DraftKings.
In honor of Spieth’s new deal, FanDuel announced that they are boosting the odds for the superstar in the BMW Championship. His odds went from -200 to +100, which makes a $100 wager eligible to win $100 instead of just $50. He didn’t end up winning, though, as Patrick Cantlay earned the tournament win as a 25/1 long shot.
DraftKings Becomes Official Sports Betting Partner of The Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are another professional sports team that is dipping into the world of sports betting. The Ravens were able to strike a deal with DraftKings Sportsbook in order to promote the legal sports gambling brand. DraftKings is going to be frequently mentioned in the organizations weekly podcast titled ‘The Lounge’ and is going to be the new title sponsor for their pregame show.
This is the fifth NFL team that DraftKings has been able to come to an agreement with. They are already an official sports betting partnership with the NFL as well.
There’s an absolute arms race going on right now in terms of partnerships in North America ranging from sports teams and leagues to content providers and much more. Although it’s still early, expect all 32 NFL teams to sign pacts with sportsbooks in the coming years as well as every professional, major sports franchise in all of the big sports. All of the sportsbooks are tossing around billions of dollars in marketing and advertising as they try to attract as many players as possible.
NFL Could Get $270 Million In Revenue from Sportsbook Deals
This week’s casino news has a laser-focus on Caesars Entertainment. The casino giant has been in the news thanks to all sorts of various deals, so let’s recap their latest moves.
NFL Could Get $270 Million In Revenue from Their Casino and Sportsbook Deals
The NFL could be on pace to bring in some monster cash before the end of 2021. Early estimations expect that the NFL could bring in $270 million in total revenue from their partnerships with sportsbook operators and a couple of casino companies. If you expand those estimations to the first decade, the NFL could see $1 billion worth of revenue. Keep in mind that not all states have legalized sports betting just yet, so that figure could be conservative.
The NFL has partnered up with Caesars Entertainment in a deal where they will now become the official casino sponsor of the league. The NFL has also grouped up with the sports betting giant DraftKings as their sportsbook partner.
Some NFL teams have even been softening their stance on sports betting and have made agreements of their own. The New Orleans Saints were able to get a 20-year, $138 million deal approved by Louisiana lawmakers that would allow Caesars to rename their stadium to the Caesars Superdome. The Houston Texans are another team that has a partnership with Caesars in a marketing type of deal even though you can’t legally place bets in the state of Texas. This is just the tip of the iceberg as many more deals like this are on the cusp.
Caesars Entertainment Partners Up With Fiesta Bowl
Caesars Entertainment continues to take advantage of sports betting being legalized around the country and they’re again expanding their footprint. The latest is that they have agreed to a deal with the Fiesta Bowl and are now going to be a partner of one of the biggest bowl games in college football.
The plan will be for them host fan lounges at both the Fiesta Bowl and the Guaranteed Rate Bowl (both bowl games are played in the state of Arizona) and will have Caesars featured in many ways. Anybody attending either of those games will have the opportunity to wager on the game they are watching through their mobile sportsbook too.
Sports betting became legalized this past year and all of the big players are locking in partnerships with content providers, sports franchises, influencers, bowl games and more. A lot of money is being thrown around and you can expect many other bowl games to get betting sponsors in the near future too.
Caesars Entertainment Inherits 24.5 Percent of NeoGames Stake
Sticking with Caesars, it turns out that their acquisition of William Hill had more positives than they could have expected. Alongside their hefty purchase, it was reported that Caesars now gets to own a 24.5 percent stake in the iLottery provider, NeoGames. Caesars stake in the company is worth approximately $258.44 million, which is certainly going to help them negate the $3.69 billion they spent to acquire William Hill in the first place.
NeoGames is currently operational in a couple of states already and has quite a lot of potential. New Hampshire, Virginia and North Carolina are all states in which they are operating in at the moment, but we could see them expand to Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, Missouri, Connecticut, Alaska and Maryland within the next couple of months. NeoGames is also servicing Alberta, Canada.
Caesars likely isn’t going to be handing out a ton of cash to NeoGames in order to fully invest into its future. Instead, they are probably going to try and recover financially from the William Hill purchase and slowly add onto their existing businesses. It’s a nice asset that Caesars got in the deal.