Joe Milton III #19 of the New England Patriots is scrambled by Kyu Blu Kelly #36 of the Washington Commanders during the third quarter of a preseason game at Commanders Field on August 25, 2024 in Landover, Maryland.
Scott Taetsch | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
Football is back and it is expected to bring with it record breaking bets.
US adults will wager $35 billion this NFL season, according to projections from the American Gaming Association.
That would represent a more than 30 percent increase over the $26.7 billion Americans wagered during last year’s National Football League season, according to the AGA, and set a new record. Since last NFL season, Maine, North Carolina and Vermont have allowed sports betting operators to open in their states. And court rulings have allowed Hard Rock International to relaunch sports betting in Florida.
Today, sports betting is live and legal in 38 states and Washington, DC.
And yet gaming company stocks don’t follow the same growth trajectory. Shares of DraftKings, pen, Caesars, MGM Resorts and Have funwhich jointly own BetMGM, are all negative to date. Agitation, owner of FanDuel, has risen 19% since listing on the New York Stock Exchange this year. It posted second-quarter earnings that beat expectations for revenue and earnings, sending shares higher.
Churchill Downs is positive for the year and Rush Street Interactive has seen remarkable gains of 109% year-to-date.
Competition is heating up
Each of the licensed sportsbooks is working on strategies to claim a bigger share of the action, trying to attract new customers and convince established players to show more brand loyalty.
The start of the NFL is an opportunity to launch new and improved technology or innovative bets that entice players. Sportsbooks are adapting their offerings to reach new customers.
“The NFL season is our biggest acquisition period of the year,” said Christian Genetski, president of FanDuel, the nation’s leading sportsbook.
FanDuel is the only one partnering with YouTube to present a “Sunday Ticket” promotion. Players who wager $5 receive a three-week trial to watch out-of-market NFL games with “Sunday Ticket.” FanDuel hopes that allowing fans to watch their favorite teams will lead to more bets.
FanDuel also said it has tweaked the design of its app and added more bets to Same Game Parlay. It’s upgraded features so fans can bet at “the speed of sports,” the company said.
With more than 95% of sports betting now done online, speed matters. This is especially true when it comes to micro-bets: bets placed on specific games as the game progresses.
Fanatics, Michael Rubin’s e-commerce empire of sports merchandise and memorabilia, launched its sports book last year in four markets. Since then, Fanatics Sportsbook has acquired PointsBet’s US operations and technology, which is now fully integrated. And his sports book is now in 22 states.
It’s quite an impressive on-ramp for a newcomer to the industry.
Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Fanatics Sportsbook builds on its existing database of 100 million fans to acquire customers throughout the year and rewards them with products from the merchandise and collectibles businesses.
And just before the start of the 2024 football season, Fanatics hosted a successful fan activation called Fanatics Fest NYC, where customers could meet athletes and celebrities and celebrate their passion for sports.
Fanatics Sportsbook CEO Matt King told CNBC that customer response has been overwhelming.
“We’ve seen incredible positive sentiment and response to our proposition of being the most rewarding sports bet, both in terms of the financial value of what we give back and, frankly, the unique things we can do,” King said.
King said the unique player rewards are built into the crescendo of the sports calendar, what he described as the “sports equinox” — that time during the fall when nearly all sports are played on overlapping schedules.
DraftKings said the NFL is the most popular league in terms of both handling and the number of bets it receives.
The sports book, which recently dropped a plan to tax customers in high-tax states, offers “No Touchdown” prop bet. this season, meaning bettors will now be able to bet on whether a top player doesn’t score a touchdown.
New offers
With its shares down 28% this year and its digital business in the red, there is an interest and scrutiny Penn Entertainment. This is his first full NFL season to showcase ESPN Bet, with his $2 billion investment a renamed sports book in collaboration with Disney-proprietary sports juggernaut. It first started in November of last year, in the middle of the NFL season.
Since then, the platform has grown its customer database to 31 million members, an 80% gain. Penn leaders are optimistic about the media integration with ESPN.
“People are active in our app, and our goal in the coming quarters is to increase engagement and retention and better monetize our important engagement activity through improved products and expanded offerings,” Penn CEO Jay Snowden said in a statement. an earnings call on August 8. .
The ESPN Bet smartphone app held in New York, USA on Thursday, February 22, 2024.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
BetMGM has just launched the first single wallet for mobile gaming in Nevada, where customers can transfer their accounts from Las Vegas back to their home states. Mobile wallets eliminate the friction of multiple transactions.
“Our players can now immerse themselves in the excitement of MGM Resorts destinations in Las Vegas or across the state, while continuing to seamlessly place bets on other BetMGM markets,” said BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt.
Tune in: CNBC reveals the Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations on Thursday, September 5th on air and online.
