Sports betting industry executives said it will be a different landscape once sports wagering resumes in terms of bet pricing, handle, marketing, and preference of players for mobile wagering over spending time at a casino during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The executives also expect the pandemic to lead to a push by state lawmakers to expand sports wagering in more jurisdictions and authorize mobile wagering in states where only land-based bets are accepted.
Sports betting was a focus during the ICE North America digital conference that ends Friday.
“I see sports coming back, but I don’t know if I necessarily see the same revenues per player,” said Daniel Kustelski, co-founder and CEO of Chalkline Sports, a sports betting monetization company, in describing a changing landscape in this economic environment. “We’ll probably see far more targeted and hyper-regionalized marketing and more of a focus on ROI (return on investment). We’ll look at channels that are working and aren’t working and get rid of the ones that aren’t because there’s just not as many marketing dollars over the next six to 12 months.”
Kresimir Spajic, senior vice president for online gaming and sports betting for Hard Rock International, said he believes that once major sporting events return to action, the viewership will be high and there will be increased interest in sports betting. Spajic said what will be interesting is the impact of events being played at empty stadiums or at one locale like the NBA is discussing for its playoffs.
“It will create some problems for pricers and traders,” Spajic said. “It’s very different when you play in front of an empty stadium than you play in front of 50,000 to 60,000 people. This is an uncertain future. We’ll go through this and learn and try to handle it the best way we can.”
Bill Anderson, vice president of commercial with technology provider BetGenius, agreed. “There will be some challenges with pricing, but that’s a good problem we’re looking forward to.”
The conference comes amid Thursday’s recognition of the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that paved the way for the expansion of full-fledged sports betting nationwide. Sports betting is active in 18 states and coming to others.
Spajic said the revenue shortfalls of states are likely to lead to special sessions in the fall that can serve as an opportunity for expansion into more states or authorizing mobile sports wagering where land-based sports betting is legal.
“Hopefully in some of these big states, we can see (expansion) happening in the next year or two,” Spajic said in addition to mobile expansion. “We can see CEOs and CFOs of brick-and-mortar companies emphasizing the importance of mobile products and what it can do for them in the future.”
Daniel Kustelski said states will look at expanding mobile sports wagering because some people will be reluctant to spend time in casinos during the pandemic and place wagers. There could even be a relaxation of rules for registering and depositing funds online.
“If they have to go into a land-based casino to sign up, I think that’s going to go away,” Kustelski said. “I think there will be a lot more enthusiasm for mobile registration and mobile depositing.”
Seth Young, chief innovation officer with online bookmaker PointsBet, said the argument for mobile betting has been strengthened in the U.S. as it has for iGaming, due to the closure of casinos.
“I think it will be a busy back half of the year and busy 2021 for state legislators, as states that need tax revenue to fund public policy initiatives consider how sports betting and online gaming might help,” Young said. “I think that maybe the biggest impact on sports betting in the macro-environment. I think 2018 was a tipping point, and we’re at another one. I’m excited about the future.”
BetGenius’ Anderson said the pandemic has even shown a willingness of state regulators to approve betting options for eSports and obscure sports (such as table tennis) that would have been more difficult in the past. He said that trend should continue.
Seth Young wants to see more changes. He called on state regulators to implement fix-odds for horse racing as a way for sportsbook operators to add to their portfolio and help the racing industry.
