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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
speaker-0 (00:00.206)
The Supreme Court likely will have the final say on where we end up with prediction markets. However, that is likely at least a year away. And for now, it's sort of everyone charging ahead, whether it's Cal Sheet and Polymarket, or whether it is regulated operators in the gaming space like DraftKings and FanDuel, who are making large scale pushes into those prediction markets right now.
speaker-1 (00:26.99)
The world is changing and so is the iGaming industry.
Here we are at SBC Summit America's twenty twenty six to witness the transformation of the sports vetting and i gaming industry as it happens, with new conversations going on here and the decision makers doing decision making right on the spot. I'm Fernando Nott, media manager for SBC and your host for today's episode of iGaming Daily, brought to you by Optimove, the creator of Positionless Marketing and number one player engagement solution for iGaming and sports betting operators. And I have the pleasure
To be joined for the first time together with me on Night Gaming Daily by Adam Candy, editor for SBC Americas. Adam, how are you today?
speaker-0 (01:10.947)
I am hanging in there. These are long days at these events, but they're so great. We get to meet so many people. We get to, as you mentioned, talk to so many decision makers and be right on the pulse of what's happening in this business.
speaker-1 (01:24.418)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's it's always great. Like I always mention this when whenever whenever I'm recording a podcast episode at an event, getting together with people is the best part of this industry, it's the best part of being at an event, at a gaming event, because you get to hear from them first hand and and they it's conversations are are much more loose.
when you're when you're together in person. So it's really interesting to see to see people in the flesh, right?
speaker-0 (01:55.086)
No, I agree. And it's it's organic, right? You have a chance to have a conversation in a normal setting as opposed to, you know, you and I as reporters, we're used to the very formal question, answer, question, answer, right? But on our panels, in our fireside chats, we have the opportunity to talk to people in a much different way, in a way that allows them, I think, to be themselves a little bit more.
speaker-1 (02:18.282)
And right now I wanna make the most out of having you here on the pod. And I think it's a great way to start to talk about a panel you were in yesterday, and yesterday as the time of of we are recording this, of course. it was called the big picture. So I want you to describe the big picture for gaming in the US right now. What are the main concerns for the industry, what are the main challenges we're facing right now?
speaker-0 (02:46.382)
We actually had fantastic panel of guests from Softbet, from Optimove. we we were able to really dig in on different angles of what's coming next in the US gaming industry. As everyone knows, the growth of prediction markets is the talker subject of what's going on here and elsewhere. However, there are lots of other angles. Foreign operator.
like SoftTebet who is just now coming into the US market. They talked a lot about how they see regulation as an opportunity as opposed to as an obstacle. I thought that was very interesting as the US is dealing with a regulatory state of flux right now, right? It's not very clear what's happening with prediction markets, although I know we'll talk a little bit about some new rules and regulations that are coming in that area. We talked to Optimove more about player behavior, right?
What it takes to retain customers in this environment, what it takes to acquire new customers as well. So to answer your question from the broader perspective, where are we right now in the US gaming landscape? It is a time of uncertainty for a lot of operators in the online space, right? The growth of prediction markets, how those will be regulated, the potential for iGaming to expand.
Right? Are we going to have more markets come on in terms of eye gaming? Are we going to see online sports betting change from where we are right now? We had questions in that panel about consolidation and whether we expect more brands who are kind of hanging out toward the let's say the five to ten range in terms of revenue, are they going to continue to pursue the US opportunity or are those potential acquisition targets for DraftKings, FanDuel?
fanatics, some of the larger operators as well. So regulation and where that stands creates some uncertainty right now. However, I think there's broad agreement among everyone we talk to about the fact that there absolutely is opportunity in this U.S. market.
speaker-1 (04:59.31)
Yeah, I think that's the the most important word anyone wants to hear in this business opportunity. so yesterday I told you when we were preparing this episode, this recording, I told you I don't I don't really want to talk about prediction markets. So let's talk about prediction markets. what's the state of the of of of of the market right now? You mentioned regulation, you mentioned uncertainty in regulation. So where are we right now with with prediction markets in specific?
speaker-0 (05:14.944)
Absolutely.
speaker-0 (05:26.126)
So very kindly, I would say the CFTC chose our first day of the conference to put out its two hundred and sixty plus proposed pages of rules for how they will regulate prediction markets at the CFTC level. I say the commission put it out. those who know the US market well know that there used to be five commissioners at the CFTC.
The president has only filled one of those spots. And so you essentially have a one person commission making these decisions, and that is Chairman Michael Seelig, who is in charge now. And so what you saw out of that is that it is friendly overall to sports event contracts. And that is really the big question that is hanging over the entirety of the US market right now. The question of whether or not these will be deemed to be gaming.
As they have been so many other places in the world. that will be something that's probably decided by the courts. There's not a lot of surprise in the fact that the CFTC was friendly to prediction market operators. they did set some guardrails in those proposed rules to where certain types of sports bets, the smaller bets that are based on a single outcome, things that are based on officiating decisions. I know so much of what we hear about in terms of
Did a footballer get in trouble was they went and got a yellow card, right? Like a simple, simple thing to go do that can be affected by one person. They're trying to avoid those types of outcomes being included in prediction markets. Now, they also talked about how casino style games likely don't fit with what they determined to be the public interest. And I think that was a dominant theme among many of the panels we talked about yesterday. Are they going to allow?
For casino style gaming to be layered on top of the prediction markets as they are right now. And the proposed rules discuss how they said nothing based on luck or chance would be allowed to be within those prediction markets, which I think for some operators in the iGaming space is the fear that that is the natural progression of where this might go. So where are we right now in the US with prediction markets? We are all kind of
speaker-0 (07:48.878)
Casting eyes toward Washington and saying eventually this is going to get to the Supreme Court and they're going to have the ultimate decision, much as they did in the Murphy versus NCAA case that led to online sports betting in 2018. The Supreme Court likely will have the final say on where we end up with prediction markets. However, that is likely at least a year away. And for now, it's sort of everyone charging ahead, whether it's Cal Shear and Poly Market.
Or whether it is regulated operators in the gaming space like DraftKings and FanDuel who are making large scale pushes into those prediction markets right now. So
speaker-1 (08:25.568)
It it almost feels like the CFTC is finding the s
reaching the same conclusions as the state regulators have been making or raising for years now, which the which are the the prop markets, the the smaller markets, like you said, yellow cards, sa I don't know, corner kicks, officiating, all that. so it's interesting to see that in in at this point of the of the conversation. But you mentioned we're going to have to hashtag wait and see. That's something we do here.
for the Supreme Court to intervene, w which is probably gonna happen. So what do these rules mean in general for prediction markets, for companies like Polymarket Tech? Does does this new story that broke yesterday mean anything for the current operation of those companies?
speaker-0 (09:19.02)
It actually is likely to mean quite a bit for the current operation. And I would say you could take these as guides for twenty-six and probably a lot of twenty-seven as well. And maybe even beyond that, if the prediction market companies are able to find other aspects to challenge when it comes to making the rules more favorable to them to offer the contracts they want to offer. So if we think it through from this angle, those companies are going to continue to operate.
in this area and probably be quite profitable in this area for at least that next year and a half or so until we have more clarity from the court. And so for now, you will have a public comment period upcoming on those rules. That is standard for any new rules at the CFTC is that they'll propose the rules, you'll have a period of public comment and it's referred to as public comment. This is basically the time when all of the big operators, all of the state regulators
Everyone for and against is going to have an opportunity to submit their comments, submit their proposed changes as well. I wouldn't take anything that is in those rules right now as final. It definitely is a draft form that is there right now. however, we know that from the time that this rulemaking process began to right now was a very brief time. it was signed off on by the White House before we got to this point.
And it's fair to say that those rules that we see from the CFTC appear to have had input from the prediction market operators. I think actually Chairman Seely acknowledged that to some degree. it'll now be on regulated OSB iGaming operators in the US to see whether or not they can make any headway in their public comment in terms of getting the rules more favorable to them. And again, I shouldn't
paint them all with one broad brush, right? DraftKings FanDuel fanatics, etc., have prediction markets products and will be happy to be able to play in all fifty states, right? but they also, I don't think, would be terribly upset if this turned the other direction and okay, maybe that large scale opportunity isn't there for them in California, Texas, Florida where they're not able to play right now, but they wouldn't feel like they're missing out on something, right? And right now,
speaker-0 (11:43.81)
They eventu essentially had months and months where they felt like they were seeding those markets to Calci Poly Market until they were able to get up to speed.
speaker-1 (11:51.042)
Optimov's positionless marketing is changing how iGaming teams operate. Discover how operators are using Optimus positionless marketing platform to launch personalized CRM campaigns, dynamically change casino lobbies and bet slips, and create engaging gamified experiences. Learn more at Optimove.com. Well, it's funny you mention sports betting traditional sports betting operators in this conversation because during the event you were in a Fires chat with X Heck from Bet365. So what are
traditional sports painting operators thinking right now, where what's their thought process? What's what are their their main concerns and what did you find out on this Fireside Chat?
speaker-0 (12:30.606)
It was a great conversation that we had with Stephanie Deflora, the chief marketing officer for Bet 365. their US operation has scaled up to about 600 people in their headquarters in Denver. They still have an office open in New Jersey as well. And so to take your question, what they're thinking, I don't think maybe reflects what many other sports betting operators in the US are thinking because they're in a different phase right now. As well known as Bet 365 is throughout the rest of the world.
It really doesn't have that same recognition in the United States. And that's what Stephanie was talking to us about is how do we build brand awareness around Bed 365? Now, some of it's going to be big tent pull events like the World Cup, some of it's going to be trying to target certain markets where they think they have opportunity. And one of the interesting things she talked about was their marketing strategy and how they don't want to focus on using celebrities to promote their products.
They felt as though they wanted to go in a different direction. One of their billboards that they have out now says, bold takes, bold stakes. And I think it's very targeted toward the US customer and and the view of the US customer, I think, both outside and inside the United States of brash opinionated Americans who, okay, you have an opinion about sports, put your money where your mouth is. Come do with Bet 365. that is something that they're gonna lean into. So
Their ads around their winning is everything campaign, I thought, do give them the opportunity to carve out a place that is theirs in the market. The question, of course, is going to be: we're now almost eight full years into the online sports betting legalization nationwide in the US. Can a late entrant be able to make any headway when it comes to DraftKings, fan duel?
BetMGM fanatics, really the top four that we see along with Caesars. And you have to have the situation that Bed 365 does, right? Which is they are enormously capitalized. they don't have to answer to US shareholders in the in the way that some other companies do. It's more a matter of their appetite for this market and whether or not they believe that there is a place. Stephanie said repeatedly, we think there is a a path for us to have a podium position in the US. And
speaker-0 (14:57.974)
As a journalist, my ears perked up to say they're starting out with realistic expectations, right? When you say podium position, you're okay being number three, at least at the very beginning of this, right? Maybe you come in and after a couple of years, you're taking that eight to ten percent market share in the US. And I think that would be a great foothold for Bet 365. That's currently where you know fanatics BetMGM kind of trade off that position in the US right now. But they're starting out with what feels like both a reachable goal.
and a scalable goal which suggested to me they really do have a long term strategy.
speaker-1 (15:32.328)
Do y you do think it's realistic that Bet three sixty five reaches that position?
speaker-0 (15:37.612)
Absolutely, I do think that Bet 365 could be a a podium player in the US. Now, how much money are they willing to spend to get to that? That's really the question that's involved here. But I can tell you, yeah, I've been covering this industry for the last eight years and I lived in Las Vegas for a time. And if you talk to betters in Las Vegas, those who really know the industry, Bet 365 is a recognizable name, you know, even without the presence that they have now started to build.
in the US for those who have been following this closely and we've said forever, why aren't they making a bigger push? When are they going to be coming into this market? Because we know the strength of the product, right? We know that in terms of live trading and in-game, that a lot of companies are chasing them and have been for a long time. So we have the answer to the question. The answer is twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six. Here here we are with Bet365.
speaker-1 (16:30.452)
And it's it's great you made a different differentiation at one point in the beginning of the podcast for online gaming. We're talking about online gaming. We have been talking about online gaming so far, but where are we with land base? But because the world is changing, like I said, technology is like moving maybe the players over to to more remote options, but land base is still there and there were some convers conversations around land base here.
speaker-0 (16:57.262)
Conversations around land-based gaming in the panel that we had yesterday were interesting because they still talked about modernization. They still talked about using tools that are available, such as AI, being able to mine your data more efficiently than you used to. And I think that really is the heart of it for land-based gaming. It's not that it ever was throw open the doors and people will come in, right? Casino marketing has
had I mean whether it it's VIP relationships or whether it's just being able to target people with free rooms, come to Las Vegas, et cetera, et cetera, the casino marketing has become infinitely more sophisticated over the last couple of decades. And now it's vital. And that was the discussion that was going on within the panel to say it's no longer an edge for you to be good at going inside the data that you have from players' cards.
From how people respond to online advertisements and and so on, how they respond to your emails. You have to be able to do that. And along those lines, you have to be able to use AI tools to be able to be more efficient and to get better insights into who those players are that return longer term value, who are more likely to come to your property on a more frequent basis. And especially when we talk about this was the smaller operators in this panel.
But as we talk about the larger operators, it's so much a question of how do you get them on property and spending in different ways. Right? We know in Las Vegas the trend forever has been people are spending less on gambling when they come to Las Vegas. That's why it's become more expensive to dine out, to go to shows, to go to clubs. Those are the places that they're also able to make money. And I think that's part of the conversation as well with land-based gaming. It's not just about the gaming, it's about the entire amenity.
being offered and that's the differentiator. BetMGM tried this with their rewards for quite a while. They haven't been as prevalent with this ad campaign recently, but they were talking about how play with us, Caesars did this too, play with us to build rewards to come have experiences at our properties or at sporting events with teams that we have partnerships with. Come do things in person that you can't do betting from your phone. And I think that's a lot of what is being discussed in terms of land based gaming.
speaker-1 (19:18.732)
And Adam, we're reaching the final stages of this episode. So I didn't want to leave out AI, so I'm gonna put mix it together with this question. I'm gonna ask you now, where should we be looking at coming out of SBC Summit America's twenty twenty six? Where should we be looking at into twenty twenty seven? Of course, I bet prediction markets are are there.
We haven't been talking about sweepstakes for a while, with prediction markets taking the the the center stage. And what about AI as well? So w where are we looking at? Of course, people should be looking at S V C Americas and subscribe to the newsletter at S VC Americas.com
speaker-0 (19:56.524)
I mean, I I think that goes without saying, but now that you said it, definitely do that. now that we are coming to the end and talking about these two, let me separate them out in terms of AI and sweepstakes a bit. I'll take sweepstakes first and say it has not been the friendliest regulatory climate to sweepstakes over the last year. We've seen six different states pan pass sweepstakes bans and then just recently Tennessee and Oklahoma added bans as well. Now
Tennessee and Oklahoma doing that adds to an overall momentum. However, it doesn't really make a difference in terms of total addressable market in the US right now. They've had to leave other states when they've had cease and desist orders in places like New York and Michigan that have make a big impact in terms of their bottom line. But something that was discussed that I found very interesting in our panels yesterday was these companies that were involved in dual currency games.
They also were able to build a big pile of money that they now have to figure out how they're gonna spend. And in terms of AI, I think we're gonna see that companies are looking for ways to be more efficient, work faster, and be able to scale their product.
speaker-1 (21:10.85)
Make sure you are subscribed to SVC Americas at SVC Americas.com so you can keep up to date with all of what we have talked about today with Adam Candy. Adam, thank you very much for being on iGaming Daily. thank you very much, Naya McDonald, for producing this episode and the crew live here at SVC Summit America's twenty twenty-six. I'm Fernando Nott and to our listeners out there, we'll see you in the next one. Goodbye.