10 Jun: Google swerves slot streaming questions +More
SBC Digital North America day 1, iGaming Next Bright Future day 2, Illinois sports-betting GGR May, Smarkets fundraise
Good morning and welcome to today’s newsletter which brings you the highlights from day 1 of the SBC Digital North America event and the second day’s summary from iGaming Next. We also have the latest sports-betting data from Illinois. We start, though, with more US M&A chat and some thoughts in particular on the future of SPACs.
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SBC Digital North America day 1
Time for a digestif? The M&A panel yesterday continued with the theme of the investor enthusiasm for all things sports-betting and icasino. Once again the issue of SPACs was raised, this time with Matt Davey, who heads up one of the vehicles known to be looking for investments in the betting and gaming space, Tekkorp. Acknowledging the hiccup in SPAC funding mentioned during one of the panels at yesterday’s iGaming Next event, Davey said the sheer inflow of cash had caused a degree of “indigestion.” “People got a little exhausted and I think that is healthy,” he added. “Someone needed to tap the brakes.” His comments came on the same day that Sportradar was reported to have walked away from a de-SPAC deal with Todd Boehly’s Horizon Acquisition (see below).
Come and get me plea: On the same panel, however, an open invitation was offered to Davey or anyone else looking at investment opportunities by Wayne Kimmel, CEO at early-stage investor SeventySix Capital. Having seen two of his previous investments snapped up recently (VSiN to DraftKings and Vigtory to Fubo) he was understandably bullish about his portfolio.
“We love SPACs,” Kimmel crowed. “The more options that are out there for our private business, the better. We want the SPACs that are out there to take a look at some of our companies, to either be a target or a tuck in.”
More generally, Kimmel spoke about the sense of betting and gaming being at the centre of all conversations right now in any number of contexts around media and sports. “The toothpaste is out of the tube,” he said.
Brass in pocket: On the Affiliate Leaders’ panel, CPA just edged it as the panelists’ favoured model in the US over revenue share, although all expected the industry to move towards revenue share over the longer term. The clearest reasoning came from Catena Media CEO Michael Daly who said CPA enabled Catena to generate immediate cash. When asked how much traffic affiliates needed to drive to operators to be considered valuable, BetMGM’s Wachtel said: “Some drive thousands of players and we’ll have weekly calls and some drive a few every month but we still speak with them regularly.”
iGaming Next Bright Future day 2
Not my job guv: Speaking to Michael Pederson from iGaming Next at the end of the event’s second day, Chris Harrison, the online gaming industry lead at Google, appeared to offer a classic swerve around the question of the content of casino streamers on YouTube. Asked about content which might be seen to be breaching responsible gambling codes with their promoting of continuous play and the exalting of big wins, Harrison said “YouTube allows people to explore their passions.”
“Whether we choose to allow monetization of that content is a different conversation. We offer the opportunity to opt out of all live streaming and we would typically advise opting out of all live streaming advertising.”
But beyond that advice, it would be the operators who would have to police any content they might get involved with. “We can’t determine to any great degree how a channel matches up against industry models. The onus is on the operator to get comfortable with the regulation in whatever country they are in.”
Smarkets
Get smart: UK-based but US-ambitious Smarkets is reported to have raised a new tranche of cash from Susquehanna Growth Equity, an investment fund affiliated with SIG. The investment marks the first time Smarkets has raised outside money since 2013. The business, which was founded in London in 2008, has been profitable since 2014. Scott Feldman, a managing director at Susquehanna Growth Equity, said it was the Smarkets trading technology that appealed. SIG itself is a US quant trading and market making firm with billions in assets. Smarkets launched a US-facing brand called SBK in Colorado last June.
Illinois sports-betting GGR April
Sewn up: The latest sports-betting data from Illinois shows a market which appears to have settled into a pattern of top three or four dominance. Deutsche Bank noted that the top three on the market, FanDuel, DraftKings and BetRivers - generated around 81% of the total mobile handle in the month between them. Add in Barstool and that reaches over 90%.
The splits weren’t much different when looking at GGR. Of the $43.6m raised from online and retail, FanDuel collared 39%, DraftKings 28% and Penn 9.2%. Total handle was down over 15% from the March Madness highs at $537.2m. Recall, Illinois ended mobile registration at the start of April adding extra noise to the betting volumes fall.
Newslines
New horizons: Sportradar is reported to be considering an straight IPO instead of the proposed merger with the Horizon Acquisition Corp II vehicle helmed by LA Dodgers owner Todd Boehly. According to Sportico, a deal to bring Sportradar to the public markets with a $10bn valuation faltered due to the relative drying up of the SPAC market since the euphoria of the early months of this year.
Flood of money: As mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, Genius Sports confirmed it issued 22 million shares priced at $19 per share, raising $418m in the process that will go towards “general corporate purposes”. Some of the group’s existing shareholders sold 9 million of the shares and will pocket around $170m of ther total.
Take me to the river: PointsBet has announced it has secured access to Maryland via a deal with the Riverboat Group which runs the Riverboat on the Potomac once the necessary regulatory approvals are attained. The initial term of the deal is 10 years. PointsBet will pay market access fees plus an undisclosed percentage of NGR derived from both online and retail operations. Recall, legislation allowing sports-betting in Maryland was signed in mid-May.
Scout-Kaizen DFS launch: Scout Gaming has launched its fantasy odds with Kaizen Gaming, the parent company for leading Greek sportsbook Stoiximan and Betano, which operates in Germany, Romania, Portugal and Brazil. Scout said it was working on a bet-builder feature that would enable same game parlays or for players to combine DFS bets with regular sportsbook markets from the same event.
What we’re reading
Irrational exuberance: The Mohegan Sun Virgin Hotel; opening got off to a bad start after the company breached Covid guidelines and ended up getting slapped with a $60,000 fine by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Calendar
10 Jun: SBC Digital North America (Day 2)
Contact us
Scott Longley scott@clearconcisemedia.com
Jake Pollard jake@openmediaservices.com