SportsHandle: That was the week that was in US sports betting

Image source: Photo by luiscolato.com courtesy of FanDuel Group

SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.

A Brave New World: Networks Face Delicate Balance In Integrating Sports Betting As NFL Opens Doors To Gambling In Broadcasts

The NFL is entering a new frontier.

After decades of opposition to the legalization of sports betting, the league has gradually changed its stance on gambling since the historic PASPA ruling, despite becoming the last of the major North American pro sports leagues to develop a comprehensive policy on sports wagering. For the first time ever, the league will open a season with an official sports betting partner — three to be exact — in DraftKings, FanDuel, and Caesars Entertainment.

Full story here.

Seven Sportsbook Operators Go Online  On Arizona For NFL Kickoff

One minute after midnight, event wagering went live Thursday in Arizona. DraftKings, FanDuel, and WynnBet — the only operator partnered with a tribe to go live — launched digital platforms, officially making Arizona the biggest state in the West to offer statewide mobile wagering in the post-PASPA era.

The launch was one of three in different states on the first day of the 2021 NFL season. One tribe in Washington State opened its doors for in-person betting and BetMGM was among the first South Dakota operators to take a bet. Both of those states allow for wagering at brick-and-mortar facilities only.

Full story here.

Connecticut Tribes, Lottery Expect October iGaming, Sports Betting Launch

Connecticut’s tribes and Gov. Ned Lamont’s office got word on Thursday afternoon that the U.S. Department of the Interior had approved tribal-state compacts between both the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes and the state. In a press release from Lamont’s office, representatives from both tribes and the governor said they were “thankful” for the approval, “excited” to move forward, and pointed to an October launch for sports betting.

Full story here.

Genius Sports Continues Sportsbook Spree, Adds Another Partner In WynnBET

Hours after securing a strategic relationship with Caesars Sportsbook, Genius Sports added another prominent Colorado sportsbook operator on Tuesday evening when it announced a sports betting data partnership with WynnBET.

Under the multi-year deal, Wynn will receive access to the NFL’s official sportsbook data feed, along with a wide range of content and fan engagement solutions. The partnership builds on Genius Sports’ long-term relationship with WynnBET, which provides the sportsbook with trading solutions and official data-driven content from the company’s exclusive sports partnerships with the English Premier League, Mexico’s Liga MX, and professional soccer leagues in Argentina and Colombia.

Full story here.

Sportsbooks Get Green Light From NFL For In-Game Commercials

Looks like the old “tastes great, less filling” arguments of yore are going to be joined by “straight bets, more teasers” discussions during NFL broadcasts this season as the NFL — after decades of railing against the notion of legalized sports betting — is now welcoming seven different sportsbooks to its commercial airwaves.

Expect to see six sportsbook ads per game this year. Why only six? Because that’s the limit the NFL is placing on the books. The reasons for this are twofold, an NFL source told SportsHandle: One, because not all fans are interested in sports betting, and two, because there are still fresh memories of the ridiculousness of the DraftKings–Fanduel DFS wars back in 2015, when the two companies spent more money than the entire beer industry on television advertising from Aug. 15 to the first week of the NFL season.

Full story here.

Caesars Decision To Axe Longtime William Hill US Bookmaker Signals End Of Era

The William Hill US experiment that began just a decade ago continues to look more and more like it’s a thing of the past.

Last week’s news that renowned Las Vegas bookmaker Nick Bogdanovich, the company’s director of trading since 2012, has been let go by Caesars Sports is the latest sign that Caesars is not interested in retaining key public links to the William Hill brand.

Full story here.

Kambi Ups Ante With “Game Parlays” For Upcoming NFL Season

Not wanting to be left out of the highly popular same-game parlay market offerings in sports betting, Kambi announced Wednesday that it had launched “Game Parlays” ahead of Thursday’s NFL season opener between the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys.

Game Parlays will allow bettors utilizing sportsbooks on the Kambi platform — BetRivers, Barstool Sportsbook, Unibet, and Parx in Pennsylvania — the opportunity to combine main and player prop bets across a single game or multiple games. FanDuel was the first to offer single-game parlays, with other sportsbooks following suit and the gamesmanship accelerating since the NFL publicly embraced sports betting in April via partnerships with FanDuel, DraftKings, and Caesars.

Full story here.