Spin Cycle: Responsible Betting Promotion, College Betting Opposition Highlight Week In Gambling

Welcome to “Spin Cycle,” Casino Reports’ weekly Friday roundup of all things impactful, intriguing, impressive, or idiotic in the gambling industry. Pull up a chair, grab a stack of chips and a glass of your beverage of choice, and take a spin with us through this week’s news cycle …

RG with FD and DK

Here in the heart of Problem Gambling Awareness Month, the two leaders in U.S. online gaming, FanDuel and DraftKings, have each made a visible stride on the responsible gambling front.

Say what you want about either company coming up short on the RG/PG front over the years, but FanDuel in particular made a massive statement this week by announcing a new monthly show on FanDuel TV Extra, The Comeback with Craig Carton, hosted by New York radio host and recovering gambling addict Carton. The guest on the first episode was former NBA player and fellow recovering addict Randy Livingston.

“FanDuel remains steadfast in its commitment to leading the industry in responsible gaming, and we are proud to introduce industry-first content and programs designed to destigmatize problem gambling and offer education on responsible play,” said Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Sustainability Cory Fox in a press release.

DraftKings, meanwhile, has produced a new commercial, centered around Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” that emphasizes the idea of knowing when to walk away and features no explicit messaging encouraging viewers to open an account, make a deposit, bet on DraftKings, etc. The ad ends with the message, “It’s more fun when it’s for fun.”

Leave them kids alone

The arrow is most definitely pointing downward when it comes to wagering on college sports.

As covered earlier in the week at Casino Reports, a bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to establish a nationwide ban on player props for college athletes. And a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll actually indicates a majority of Americans feel there should be no legal betting on college sports, period.

Among the 1,112 U.S. adults polled, 58% said gambling on professional sports should be legal in their state. But only 43% felt gambling on college sports should be. (The AP writeup did some creative rounding, declaring “about 6 in 10 Americans think betting on professional sports should be legal in their state, but only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults say the same thing about legalized wagering on college sports.”)

Not that majority sentiments dictate policy, of course, but the apparent reality that a majority oppose betting on college sports could help the player-prop-ban bill gain momentum.

Caveat, however, that doesn’t really need to be spelled out to the Casino Reports readership, but is worth spelling out anyway: A ban on regulated betting on college sports doesn’t actually prevent betting on college sports or any of the harms or threats that come with it.

IMG Arena on the Radar

In major M&A news, Sportradar announced Wednesday that it is taking over IMG Arena from Endeavor Group, as Endeavor looked to shift the cost of operating IMG Arena off its own books.

By acquiring IMG Arena, Sportradar adds to its collection more than 70 rightsholders and 30,000 streaming events.

Carsten Koerl, CEO and founder of Sportradar, wrote in a blog following the announcement of the deal, “We are expanding our event portfolio, opening new rights up to our cutting-edge innovations and AI, and delivering them across our global footprint. This will improve the scope and opportunity for an entire sports ecosystem, unlocking new growth opportunities for us all.”

The Sportradar release called attention to it gaining data rights for major tennis, basketball, and soccer leagues and events, including three of the four tennis Grand Slam tournaments (all but the Australian Open).

The development is not seen as a positive for Endeavor and its investment in IMG Arena, but is undoubtedly viewed as a positive for Sportradar, which receives $125 million in cash as part of the deal. Sportradar shared the following infographic with the announcement:

House Rules: Insights from around our network

’HOOD INTENTIONS: Robinhood, in partnership with Kalshi, relaunches sports event markets for March Madness [by Chris Altruda]

WORLDWIDE LEADER: ESPN BET is actually the recreational gambler’s dream sportsbook and casino [by Jeff Edelstein]

COURIER CONVO: Jackpot.com CEO Akshay Khanna talks Texas regulation, lottery philosophy, and meeting demand for a ‘basic function’ [by Brett Smiley]

MAX EFFORT: John Oliver takes aim at sports betting, and sports betting has itself to blame [by Eric Raskin]

NEW JERSEY HAS NUMBERS: Even in 28-day February, New Jersey posts another $200M online casino month [by John Brennan]

SO DOES MICHIGAN: Michigan reports $222.5 million in online casino revenue for February, up 18% Y-o-Y [by Chris Altruda]

AND PENNSYLVANIA TOO: Eagles’ Super Bowl win puts drag on Pennsylvania gaming revenue in February [by Chris Altruda]

SAFE TRAVELS: Copy, paste, legislate: how the SAFE Bet Act is infiltrating state law [by Jeff Edelstein]

CLEAR HISTORY: Apple, Google, and sweeps operators off the hook in New Jersey RICO lawsuit [by Eric Raskin]

CROSS-COUNTRY TRIP: Legislative round-up: Arkansas may go full hog for iGaming, slow and steady progress in Hawaii [by Chris Altruda]

MARKET MADNESS: Study: sports betting legalization leads to fund managers making risky financial choices [by Jeff Edelstein]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, my co-host Jeff Edelstein and I welcomed one of the co-founders of this very site, Adam Small, to share his observations from last week’s Next.io conference in New York, discuss the state of the affiliate business, and talk a little Severance. Here’s a taste:

We also covered Robinhood diving back into sports betting, sweepstakes sites in the crosshairs, the bill to ban college player props, and the agony of Electric Poker. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

PIECE OF THE ACTION: Bally’s offers Bronx residents ownership in planned casino [New York Post]

ARTIFICIAL INTEGRATION: Perplexity, Kalshi prediction market partner on March Madness [Axios]

JUICE WORTH THE SQUEEZE: Underdog Fantasy partners with Juice Media [Complete iGaming]

PAYING THE PRICE: Economist warns of potential decline in Las Vegas tourism due to trade disputes [News3LV]

NOT THE MAVS’ YEAR: Here’s why plans for a casino resort from the Mavs’ owners is now on hold [WFAA 8ABC]

PALP-ITATIONS: Navy veteran won close to $400,000 on BetMGM only to have his bet mysteriously canceled [The Independent]

YOU OWE A BOATLOAD: Judge orders Blatstein to pay Showboat contractor $533K [Press of Atlantic City]

UNFORCED ERROR: Tennis chair umpire in the Dominican Republic is suspended for 6 years for corruption [Associated Press]

CRACKING DOWN: Illegal online gambling sites could face stiffer penalties under Nevada bill [The Nevada Independent]

KINGS AND LEANS: JMP: DraftKings ‘rooting for’ positive prediction markets ruling from CFTC [Next.io]

POCKET CHANGE: Resorts World Las Vegas fined $10.5 million for catering to illegal bookmakers [CDC Gaming Reports]

The Bonus Round

Completing the Spin Cycle with some odds and ends and our favorite social media posts of the week:

• Slate.com ran an interesting feature Thursday on Matt Morrow — a.k.a. “Vegas Matt” — a 61-year-old social media influencer making enough money (we think) from his videos to cover his distinct lack of success on the tables and machines in Las Vegas. It’s bizarre that Howie Mandel, an actual celebrity for about the last 40 years, could be excited and even mildly awed to meet a losing gambler who’s been famous for about four years, but … welcome to 2025. Anyway, first-person meandering from the author aside, it’s worth reading — especially if you’d never heard of Vegas Matt before reading this paragraph.

• A couple of news items this week from BetMGM: First, the online casino paid out big in Michigan on back-to-back days recently, awarding a $577,164 progressive jackpot on MGM Grand Millions one day and a $654,175 hit on MegaJackpots Fortune Coin the next. And second, BetMGM Poker announced the signing of poker pro Abby Merk as a brand ambassador. Wanna feel old? The movie Rounders is four years older than Merk.