00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 All right, let's move on to Betway.
00:06 Betway moving on now, launching next company here
00:10 in the state of Illinois.
00:12 You think they'll have some mobile success here?
00:14 - Yeah, well, hopefully they launch.
00:18 Look, there are three mobile sports betting licenses
00:22 in Illinois that were to be put up for a public bid
00:26 and they cost 20 million each.
00:28 That's a big price tag,
00:30 but Illinois has shown that it's kind of worthy of it.
00:32 Right now it stands as a state
00:34 with the fourth most betting handle in the US since PASPA.
00:38 And it really is a state that people want to be in.
00:42 So Betway, this was the second round of bidding
00:45 they had for these three licenses
00:47 because the first time around,
00:48 there was only one winning bidder
00:50 and they actually had to pull out.
00:51 That was a special purpose acquisition company.
00:54 We talked about SPACs a couple of times
00:56 of somebody who wants to go and buy a sports book
00:59 and bring them public.
01:00 And basically the first winner never had anybody to buy.
01:04 It just never worked out for them.
01:06 So now all three were up again
01:08 and again, there's only one winner and this is Betway.
01:12 And Betway actually was part of the first process.
01:15 They withdrew their application.
01:17 They haven't given a reason why.
01:18 I contacted their publicly listed parent company, Supergroup
01:23 to get any information about that.
01:26 They had nothing to offer,
01:28 but it seems like, you know, if you withdraw one time,
01:33 you don't withdraw this time and you win,
01:35 it seems like you want to actually be part of the market.
01:39 But I think the bigger story here, Craig,
01:41 is not that Betway won one of the bids.
01:44 It's that two of the bids went with nothing.
01:48 There's still two more licenses out there
01:50 and Illinois doesn't have to hand them out, right?
01:54 This is just a supplementary process.
01:57 They can offer these,
01:59 but they don't have to go to a third process.
02:01 And, you know, I personally thought
02:05 there were two bidders this time around
02:07 and the other bidder pulled out.
02:10 I personally thought that was Fanatics
02:11 and maybe they pulled out because they're buying points bet
02:14 and they have a way into the state already.
02:16 That actually wasn't the case.
02:18 This was J&J Ventures.
02:20 Basically they put slot machines in bars
02:23 and different parlors all around the state of Illinois.
02:27 They may actually pay more in tax dollars
02:30 than any of the casinos in Illinois.
02:32 That's how big these non-casino slots are in Illinois.
02:37 So it was really interesting to see that company,
02:40 you know, at least think about stepping,
02:42 sticking its toe into sports betting.
02:46 But I just, I don't know if we're going to see
02:48 these other licenses go up
02:49 and you start to think about who else is out there.
02:51 Certainly Bet365, I'm surprised
02:53 they didn't have any interest in it this time around as well
02:56 now that they're really pumping their US footprint
03:00 and trying to grow and, you know,
03:02 make the moves that we know a Bet365 can make.
03:06 If this goes up third time,
03:07 I think maybe that $20 million is an easy yes
03:11 for Bet365 to go ahead and try to get into the state.
03:15 Now, Betlay is a smaller company and they aren't,
03:20 at least I haven't seen them, you know, spending lavishly
03:24 and over what the market rationale is at the moment.
03:29 So I don't know how big of a splash Betway makes
03:33 in the Illinois sports betting market.
03:35 What I can tell you is that Illinois,
03:39 like a bunch of other states,
03:40 is really thinking seriously about online casino.
03:43 And so maybe this was just Betway's way
03:46 to get into the state.
03:48 So when online casino comes out, they could say,
03:49 hey, you know, we're here.
03:51 You know, it's just one of those things
03:53 we'll have to wait and see.
03:55 We've talked about it a lot.
03:56 Online casino is where the money's made.
03:58 Online sports betting is where you get the customers in
04:01 and you retain them and you keep them engaged
04:03 and you find out what kind of customer they can be.
04:06 The online casino is really where you make the money.
04:08 So we'll see if these licenses open back up
04:12 once we know something more about iGaming in Illinois.
04:15 (upbeat music)
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