NEW YORK – Since the Supreme Court’s overturn of Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act 18 months ago, the national discussion of sports has shifted, by necessity, to include the prospect of wagering.
What that means for the average sports fan is still up for debate, but representatives from four notable sports betting information websites took a shot at answering the question during a panel at the NYC Sports Betting Investor Summit, a one-day slate of discussions held in advance of the annual Sports Betting USA conference.
Left to right: moderator Thomas Allen of Morgan Stanley; Steve Budin, Dave VanEgmond, Chad Millman and Tim Tepas./CDC photo by Justin Martin.
“There’s nothing that’s really changed in sports betting since 1970. The business is getting customers,” Pick Nation CEO Steve Budin said. “Look at all the software, it’s all the same, it takes bets. At the end of the day it’s how you get your customers that counts, and who you partner with is going to be the most important part of that puzzle.”
“I think as we go forward, these companies will realize that the most important part of the business will be attracting gamblers to their site,” Budin said.
Dave VanEgmond, head of strategy and corporate development at Barstool Sports, pointed to his company’s diversity of offerings, which includes blogs, videos, and the largest sports podcasting network in the country.
“We have 66 million unique (users monthly) across (our verticals),” he said. “Operators are paying us to tap into that audience.”
VanEgmond and Budin were joined on the panel by Chad Millman, chief content officer for the Action Network, and KaFe Rocks CEO Tim Tepas.
Millman echoed VanEgmond in his opening statements, saying that the Action Network is focused most closely on growing its subscriber base.
“We’re offering them the best data possible, the best information possible,” Millman said. “We find that we’re able to ladder our customers up to become subscribers. Or, we’re funneling them to operators and getting a fee from that.”
The online-only KaFe Rocks, Tepas said, derives all of its engagement from search engines and makes a point of targeting the casual bettor who might not be as interested in having the latest data.
In answering a moderator question about the regulatory process, Millman said that it’s a challenge, but he appreciates that the rigorous process.
“There have been people in the sports betting arena that have been selling on bad faith,” he said. “I kind of appreciate that the regulatory bodies are making it challenging, because you really have to prove your credibility.”
Budin, whose site is exclusively dedicated to handicapping, said that there is still very little regulation in that field but that he’s taken pains to remove the stigma of the boiler-room hard sell from his business.
“Fifteen years ago, you had guys on the phone for a half hour, trying to sell some sure thing. It tainted the industry,” Budin said. “We had to change that perception. When I bought my first company, we fired all the salesmen, put it online and made it transparent. And we took the price down from $5,000 for a ‘guaranteed sure thing’ to $19 for qualified analysis that was worth the money. That’s the beautiful thing about the information age. If you’re not good at what you do, you’re done.”
Budin emphasized that operators have to realize their target market. “People aren’t coming over from the illegal books. You’re not getting those guys. You can get the post-up players, the $15-to-$20 bettors. You’re going to need tens of thousands of these bettors to make a successful business.”
His statement was met with disagreement from the other panelists.
“If the (regulators) really go after (the illegal books), those bettors just won’t have options anymore,” Tepas said. “I’d rather bet on big numbers (of bettors).”
Budin responded, “You’re right. The sports books here should be targeting the $10-to-$15 bettor. I think the smart ones are.” He also said that he doesn’t believe fans can be turned into gamblers and criticized ESPN’s recent introduction of gambling-themed programming.
“They’re creating these shows, supposedly looking for the gambler, but it’s not a gambler watching. So they make these shows with the hot blonde, the journalist, and the ex-athlete, and they’re all telling (you) who to bet on. Like someone gives a s**t about that.”
VanEgmond said Barstool is unlike some of the other panelists’ sites. The programming is more focused on the entertainment aspect of sports betting, likening the show to Saturday Night Live, except on Sunday morning and focused on football.
In keeping with their aim to introduce more people to the activity, Barstool has launched a free-to-play game that focuses on live betting and “the live betting experience.”
Budin, by contrast, was ambivalent about the prospect of live or in-play betting, saying that one of the major selling points of sports betting was that bettors think they’re going to win.
“You walk into a casino and what do you say? ‘They’re not going to get me for more than $1,500 tonight,’” he said. “You know you’re going to lose. Sports bettors win half the time. Now, with European operators coming in and turning sports into, essentially, a slot machine, we don’t know how that’s going to work out.”
#theFLASH – Betting on Sports: Post-PASPA, the discussion turns to monetizing fan engagement. -Justin Martin, CDC Gaming Reports. https://t.co/ey7gJtqoji #CDCgaming
— CDC Gaming Reports (@CDCNewswire) November 5, 2019
Millman said many sports bettors have been playing daily fantasy, so the “idea of doing in-game bets on players, or player prop bets in advance of the game itself, is something I think people have become accustomed to.”
VanEgmond said his company is “seasoning the market” for sports betting.
“The more you can make gambling part of the culture, the more that will happen,” VanEgmond said. “When a state goes online, someone who is risk-averse to doing it illegally may now come out and participate. They may be more casual, but they’ll participate.”
Justin Martin is the associate editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at jmartin@cdcgamingreports.com
