Circa Sports is gaining success as a niche player in a crowded national sports-betting field, expanding into other states and taking large bets in an industry that has mostly shunned them.
The company that bears the name of its flagship Circa Resort & Casino in downtown Las Vegas is taking over the sportsbook operations of the Silverton casino at the far south end of Las Vegas Blvd. on Jan. 1. Circa has three sportsbooks downtown, the Tuscany Suites & Casino just east of the Strip, and The Pass in Henderson; in northern Nevada, it operates at Legends Bay Casino in Sparks.
In early 2024, Circa is expected to launch in Kentucky, adding to its operations in Illinois, Iowa, and Colorado.
Circa majority owner Derek Stevens, who recently appeared before the Nevada Gaming Commission to seek approval to operate at Silverton, said opening sportsbooks in other states has helped the handle in Nevada.
“Other jurisdictions bringing legal sports wagering to the forefront is helpful for the state. We were licensed in Illinois six weeks ago and I can say on a first-hand basis that the increase of customers that Circa Sports has seen in Illinois has increased our handle here in Nevada. There’s more interest in additional games. That causes more interest on one side and more interest on another.”
Stevens cited excitement in Chicago for the NHL Blackhawks’ first-round draft pick Connor Bedard; that has triggered a lot of action on him and the team.
“There’s so much action on the Chicago Blackhawks in Illinois, but our lines are the same in all jurisdictions,” Stevens said. “As the money comes up on one side, it provides other jurisdictions the ability to buy back – bet the other side to help balance the book.”
Jeffrey Benson, director of operations at Circa Sports, said based on their handle, it’s best to post the same line in all states, rather than playing into a jurisdictional bias.
“The more action we see outside of Nevada on specific teams in states we’re in, that can certainly help to move the number, given we have one price across the board,” Benson said. “There may be some value on whoever is playing the Blackhawks, because we see so much Blackhawks’s action. The more states we’re in and the more bets we see, the more numbers move and the more things we hang on the board. Volume drives volume.”
Benson said Circa’s presence in other states also helps drive their players to stay at the downtown resort when they come to Nevada. “When people play with us in other states, they may want to see the retail sports book in Las Vegas or the world’s largest amphitheater at Stadium Swim. The stuff we’re doing outside helps give us visibility with the things we’re doing here in Nevada.”
Benson said they would love to operate someday in Michigan, Derek Stevens’s home state, but Circa continues to explore all opportunities in states that have favorable guidelines for remote registration and funding.
“We’re a sports-betting operator looking to take as many bets as possible. If people consider us a niche player, that’s fine. For us, it’s the long game. A lot of companies don’t have a great pulse on the market, are overspending, and all trying to do the same thing. We’re here to have good prices and great limits and take as many bets as possible. There aren’t many Circas in the world and very few in the regulated market.”
The national landscape last week added a new brand, ESPN Bet in partnership with Penn Entertainment, but Benson isn’t worried about the change from the Barstool brand. “They essentially slapped lipstick on a pig,” said Benson, who is outspoken on social media about how other sportsbooks operate and treat their customers. “Penn had very little market share and I can’t imagine that the ESPN Bet name will get them 10%, 15%, or 20% market share. They’d have to materially change how they do business to be what I consider a major player in the industry.”
Benson believes the industry is oversaturated with operators. Companies aren’t really differentiating themselves.
“You’ll never outspend, out-tech, or out-menu FanDuel and DraftKings. It seems all the rage to go into the industry and do the exact same thing FanDuel and DraftKings are doing. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me and in five to 10 years, the number of operators will be very few compared to what there are today. At that point, being niche like we are and differentiating from what other people are doing will help to serve us in the future.”
Circa takes large bets and sets good lines in an industry where there’s a lot of price gouging, a race to raise the hold percentage, and a push on same-game parlays, Benson said. “And it’s a race to get rid of anybody who wins at your book. I don’t want to be a part of those things. It doesn’t make sense if you have someone in the risk room who knows what they’re doing.”
Circa takes bets between $20,000 and $60,000 on college football, depending on the game, and $100,000 to $200,000 on NFL sides the day of the game. “The things we’re doing in the industry are vastly different from the other shops,” Benson said.
Circa doesn’t look to other sportsbooks to define their success in terms of ranking among the nation’s operators. As long as their book continues to increase its volume and do what it’s good at, Benson said everything will work out.
“Do I think we’ll ever have 50% of the market share? Probably not. There’s a world where we can have 5% to 10% market share and do pretty darn good with that.”
Bookmaking has evolved. Multiple algorithms help set the initial lines, propositions, and in-game betting, Stevens said. Circa uses algorithms as a baseline to set the line, but “we do things a little differently, because we take larger bets on average.”
When it comes to in-game wagers, for example, Stevens said Circa’s bookmakers will look at the algorithm, verify it, and sign off on it.
“We want to make sure we have an extra layer of caution based on how the different business models work,” Stevens said. “When you have a model that may take 10,000 bets in the course of 120 seconds of commercials, but the maximum bet is $50, there’s only so much that can happen in that timeframe,” Stevens said. “If you take larger bets in this two-minute period, you better make sure you don’t have an inverse line. We use a physical trade to verify what the algorithms are saying. It doesn’t take us much more than a half-second on the delay, but we believe it provides us with a little differentiating element to bookmaking.”
