In November this year, residents of the US’s most populous state will vote on at least four initiatives that could make legal and regulated sports betting a reality.

One of these initiatives is driven by iconic betting groups FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM, and looks promising on the surface. Its wording allows for gaming operators and Native American tribes to offer sports betting online across California.

But there’s a catch. The requirements that operators need to meet in order to obtain a license are next to impossible for smaller companies. 

For example, operators will need to pay a licensing fee of $100 million to do business in California. They will also need to be licensed in 10 other states or operating in five states and running at least 12 casinos.  This clearly rules out practically all of the existing operators, bar the big ones, and leaves no room for startups. 

Gambling analysts call the initiative “absolute nonsense.”

Prof. John Holden of Oklahoma State University told the Santa Cruz Sentinel: “I think what’s effectively happening is, basically, the 5 to 10 frontrunners in the market have decided ‘Alright, let’s ensure that there’s no one else who can compete by agreeing to pay these exorbitant license fees.’”

But those behind the initiative argue differently. They say that the license fee is simply one measure that ensures that significant revenue to fund homelessness, housing and mental health treatment is generated by California sports betting. 

Tricia Alcamo has been chosen to head the human resources department at FanDuel, the iconic sports betting and fantasy betting group.

Alcamo comes from a role as president of human resources for Spectrum Enterprises, the telecommunications group. Beforehand, she worked at American Express and Deloitte. 

In her new role with FanDuel, Tricia Alcamo will be responsible for areas such as talent acquisition, organizational effectiveness, compensation, employee benefits, diversity and inclusion.

Warm Welcome for Alcamo

The current president and chief executive officer of FanDuel, Amy Howe welcomed Alcamo to the leadership team.

“Tricia has had a distinguished career building and running award winning human resources teams at media companies like our own and at globally trusted brands,” said Howe. “Her arrival reflects our investment in our people and our commitment to a culture that recognizes and attracts the most talented team while providing them the most empathetic and inclusive environment to succeed.”

Adding her comments, Alcamo said that as FanDuel continues to experience rapid growth in the exciting sports betting space, the people team plays a critical role in ensuring that the organization has the culture and capabilities that will enable sustained success well into the future.

“I’m honored to be working alongside Amy and the entire leadership group to drive innovative and strategic people practices that lead to winning business outcomes and an outstanding employee experience,” summarized Alcamo.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has expanded on an existing arrangement that it has in place with Sportradar Integrity Services and penned a multi-year integrity deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sportradar will provide NASCAR with bet monitoring and reporting tools, through its Universal Fraud Detection System.

“Our partnership with Sportradar is a foundational component to the success of Nascar’s involvement with sports betting,” said the MD of sports betting for NASCAR, Joe Solosky said.

“When we began our journey into legal sports betting, our first priority was to protect the integrity of our product. Through this renewal, we’ll continue to ensure that our drivers, teams and industry stakeholders are educated on our policies.”

Key features of the new deal:

• It will cover all races in the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
• NASCAR will use Sportradar’s education and prevention services to deliver workshops – online and off – to teach about integrity in the industry.
• NASCAR will become the first North American sports league to receive Sportradar’s reporting service.

The director of global partnerships for Sportradar, Andy Cunningham praised NASCAR’s “unwavering commitment to upholding the highest levels of competitive integrity”, saying that this was instrumental to the group’s success. 

Cunningham said that Sportradar looks forward to continuing to safeguard their sport through a growing portfolio of industry-leading products and services.

In three short months, legal mobile sports betting has contributed tens of millions of dollars to education and other good causes in the state of New York.

Numbers recently published show the following:

• The eight New York sportsbooks contributed $58.3 million in taxes to the state in March, 2022 alone – some 51% of the $114.3 million won by the sportsbooks.
• March Madness saw betting grow 7.2% month on month to $1.683 billion.
• FanDuel is the dominant sports betting operator, with a handle of $673,056,881 and revenue of $58,322,575. The betting icon contributed around $29.5 million in taxes to the state in March.
• DraftKings is the sportsbook with the second largest handle, with a 27.1% share. This is in comparison to FanDuel’s 44.1%.
• Both Caesars and BetMGM are in the running for third in handle. 

In the meantime, one licensee needs to join the scene in New York, namely Bally Bet. The group is waiting until its 2.0 platform is ready to launch and hopes that it will happen this month.

After Bally Bet joins, there are no more licenses available to distribute, although the gambling authorities have not ruled out the possibility of adding more licensees next year.

All in all, New York has proven that it was more than ripe to see online sports betting become part of its gambling landscape.

Illinois set another record in its legal and regulated sports betting journey.  The state released the latest numbers, showing that sports bettors legally wagered $278.4 million during this year’s March Madness NCAA men’s basketball championship.  Bettors wagered another $7.8 million on women’s basketball.

If anyone still had any doubt that online sports betting is here to stay, the numbers prove it all. A whopping 96% of all bets on March Madness were placed online. 

The numbers wagered on March Madness 2022 were up from around $200 million last year. 

Sportsbooks made less on the basketball championship than they did on the Super Bowl, keeping only about 5% of the wagers in winnings. Numbers are usually closer to 10%.

The increase in the total amount wagered was mainly due to Illinois’ gaming authority changing the sports wagering act, essentially eliminating the in-person registration requirement.  Up until recently, players needed to sign up for sports betting at a bricks-and-mortar sportsbook before they could start betting online.

As a result of this change, sportsbooks started intense marketing campaigns to get players to sign up to their sites, especially before the major sporting events. 

FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM all have a presence in the Illinois industry, in partnership with brick-and-mortar casinos. 

Nine retail bookies operate in Illinois, and all but two offer online sports betting.