Sweeps takes
Sweepstakes dominates conversations at G2E
The controversies over sweepstakes offerings rumble on.
In +More: Rivalry redundancies, Cohen’s New York hopes.
Las Vegas waves goodbye to the Tropicana.
Analyst takes reports on Caesars, Penn and Rush Street.
Oh, let me know when it's done.
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The talk of the town
Talk talk: From the main stage to the expo floor, there was only one topic that dominated the conversations in Las Vegas this week. As Davis Catlin, managing partner at Discerning Capital posted in LinkedIn, it has been “wild to see how it has become the most common discussion point” from “relative obscurity” this time last year.
Or as Victor Rocha posted on X, “I can’t begin to tell how many people I met today that told me they’re into sweepstakes.”
Over the line: The subject was also brought up on the main stage. On Tuesday, Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson said the unregulated areas such as DFS 2.0 and sweepstakes were “pushing the envelope” and should “cross the Rubicon” towards being regulated.
Explosive: On the following day, Derek Stevens, CEO at Circa Resort & Casino, said sports-betting sweepstakes such as Fliff and Novig have “found a loophole” via the sweepstakes law. “It has just exploded,” he added.
Recall, E+M reported last month that Fliff is thought to have “got off to a flier” at the start of the NFL season. Sources this week confirmed that this trajectory has continued.
Welcome to the jungle: On an investment panel, Matt Davey, CEO at sector endemic investment group Tekkorp, said consumers will “look for a format that provides them with what they want.”
“Sweepstakes ties a sweeps promotion over a social casino experience,” he added. “The US has a ton of history whereby non-regulated products are innovated.”
Emerging: In their G2E recap, the analysts at Bank of America said they saw DFS+ and sweepstakes as “rapidly emerging verticals that are experiencing hyper growth, amid strong customer acquisition and paybacks.”
The team added that they saw both as “potential customer acquisition vehicles” in non-legalized US markets.
Each has “differentiated customer demographics” and unique play mechanics including high hold, P2P and social features.
Holding the line: Many iCasino suppliers are already making the most of the sweepstakes opportunity, with products from providers such as Pragmatic Play and Evolution much in evidence on the sites themselves.
But sources this week suggested it was “only a matter of time” before integrated gaming suppliers such as Aristocrat and Light & Wonder looked at entering the area.
“Sweepstakes isn’t going away and it is stealing their social casino lunch,” said one industry insider, who opted to remain anonymous.
Their thinking was that the simple business case might trump the evident dislike from some within those businesses.
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+More
Lotto.com has launched in Massachusetts, its 11th state, with the state’s first-ever digital scratch offering.
Stats Perform says its Opta player stats and new Opta Points feed has helped drive double-digit growth for client Kaizen Gaming’s Betano and Stoiximan brands during last summer’s Euro and Copa America tournaments.
OpenBet will provide the backend sports-betting platform for Bell Ventures Digital’s new BandBet brand in Brazil.
Esports and GenZ-focused sportsbook Rivalry has confirmed a second round of redundancies following the news in July of an initial 30 layoffs. The shares are down 32% so far this week.
At bat: Everything's coming up roses for Steve Cohen. His Mets are through to the NLCS and now the New York Post reports that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is ready to go into bat for his bid for one of the downstate casino licenses.
What we’re reading: Pennsylvania is key to bet365’s US expansion plans.
Read across
In The Token Word this week, the crypto-friendly betting and gaming giant Stake.com announced it has managed to get its name added to the list of prospective licensees in Brazil, enabling it to continue to operate in the transitional period until market launch in January.
Staying with Brazil, in Compliance+More this week, President Lula was reported to have warned the industry he “won’t hesitate” to shut the industry down if there is a marked increase in problem gambling once the new regulatory regime is in place.
+More careers
The big move: Vik Shrestha has announced via LinkedIn that he has taken on the post of VP for online gaming within the interactive division of MGM Resorts. He was previously CCO at sports-betting backend supplier SB22 and before that he spent time with IGT and Caesars.
Kyle Wachtel is to join BetHog, the new cryptocurrency sportsbook founded by ex-FanDuel CEO and Wachtel’s former colleague, Nigel Eccles.
FanDuel has appointed Felicia Gassen as senior director of business development, where she will focus on the company’s market presence and strategic partnerships.
Betr has appointed Alex Kuwada as head of marketing. He was previously senior director of growth at FanDuel.
Cordish has made three appointments to the executive team at its Maryland Live! Casino. Max Fisher has been appointed CFO, Penny Penilla Parayo as senior VP of property operations and Neal Sloane as senior VP of gaming operations.
Chief Financial Officer – Guatemala
Head of Trading Operations – Sofia, Bulgaria
Sports Marketing Director – San José, Costa Rica
Trop goes up
Did the earth move for you? Las Vegas bade farewell to what in its own terms was a relic from another era as the 1957 vintage Tropicana was imploded in the early hours of Wednesday morning this week accompanied by fireworks and a drone show.
The Trop makes way for the $1.5bn A’s MLB stadium, which is planned to debut in time for the 2028 season.
Goodbye and good riddance: The implosion didn’t come a moment too soon for some. Speaking during his G2E keynote, Circa’s Derek Stevens said he visited the Tropicana in July, just before it shuttered forever, and said “it needed to be blown up.”
A day earlier, Bill Hornbuckle from MGM Resorts said on the stage at G2E that he welcomed the A’s presence as part of the “golden triangle of sports” alongside the Raiders at the Allegiant and the Golden Knights at the T-Mobile Arena.
“That will be a million-plus tickets a year,” he said.
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Analyst takes – Caesars
Messrs Brightside: As was noted earlier this week when Caesars announced its latest iCasino brand, the Horseshoe, the analysts reported that Caesars’ management was “not optimistic” about any further iCasino state launches until at least 2026.
More positively, the analysts noted the company was in a better frame of mind with the current iCasino market, suggesting it will get to 10% market share ahead of plan.
The DB team had noted in a prior appraisal of Caesars that in Las Vegas the “sky is not falling in” but they did report that management has acknowledged November is “likely to be challenging” on the Strip.
The analysts added, though, that Caesars did not meaningfully benefit from F1 last November and as such the challenging comp for the Strip as a whole will see “negligible” impact for the company.
More takes
Penn Entertainment: Following Penn’s investor meeting earlier this week, the BofA team said they believed the success of ESPN Bet hinges on the reactivation of the database “without meaningful promos” and iCasino share gains.
Unsurprisingly, management were reported to be “confident on both fronts.”
Progress will come, first, on integrations and account linking and, second, via the launch of a standalone Casino app in Pennsylvania in early 2025.
The BofA team suggested they remained confident their estimate of $500m in fixed costs was “in the right ballpark” and think expansion could help drive gross margin leverage.
Rush Street Interactive: Having met with management this week, the Wells Fargo team said the tone was “largely positive” particularly on trading in Delaware, which is now trending at $46m a month GGR.
This is five times what previous incumbent 888 was managing. The team suggested that at maturity, Delaware could be worth $120m-$150m a year.
Further afield, Wells Fargo noted RSI saying it was gaining traction in Mexico and intended to launch in Alberta in mid-2025.
Sector watch – payments
At the core: The platform side of GiG has signed a strategic partnership with Paysafe, which will see the payment platform integrated into the supplier’s CoreX offering and making Paysafe the platform of choice for all GiG’s European, North America and LatAm customers.
GiG said the deal would mean that CoreX’s global reach would be further strengthened by adding Paysafe’s local payment methods capabilities.
This stretches across all Paysafe’s consumer-facing offerings including the Skrill and Neteller digital wallets and paysafecard and Paysafecash eCash solutions.
Beyond Paysafe’s own LPMs, the Gateway also enables access to 30+ third-party LPMs, including solutions with high brand-recognition in specific markets.
Two pay: Meanwhile, Aeropay and Worldpay have announced a new, strategic partnership to enhance gaming payments for players and operators. Aeropay's proprietary account-to-account or A2A platform can now be integrated with Worldpay’s extensive merchant network offering advanced A2A payments and payouts to US gaming operators.
Worldpay gaming merchants can easily integrate Aeropay’s platform to enable embedded player deposits via bank payment, instant, around-the-clock player withdrawals and a suite of additional features.
Venture capital firm Yolo Investments manages in excess of €500m in capital across 100 exciting fintech, gaming and blockchain companies. The Yolo Investments' Gaming fund, regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, has taken positions in fast-growth suppliers and operators, including Dabble and Enteractive. Yolo Investments (yolo.io) wants to hear from readers of this newsletter. Get in touch with your pitch, or for a chat about innovative products which can plug into our investment ecosystem.
Earnings calendar
Oct 17: Entain
Oct 23; Churchill Downs (e)
Oct 24: Betsson, Evolution, Boyd, Churchill Downs (call), GLP
Oct 25: Kindred
Oct 29: Caesars Entertainment
Oct 30: MGM Resorts
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