Online sports betting – Page 10

February 7, 2025

Mizuhara gets 57-month prison term; judge says he “undermined” himself

Former Shohei Ohtani Japanese-language interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was sentenced on Thursday (6 February) to 57 months in federal prison and three years of parole. He was also ordered to pay more than $18 million (£14.5 million/€17.3 million) in restitution after stealing from Ohtani to fund an illegal gambling habit.

US district judge John Holcomb said Mizuhara “undermined” himself with a letter he wrote to the court asking for an 18-month sentence. Holcomb said he gave the letter no weight because Mizuhara “misrepresented truths” and it “suffered from (missing) important facts”.

Mizuhara, who pleaded guilty to two federal counts in June, stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani for gambling debts. On Thursday he was sentenced in US District Court for the Central District of California. The maximum sentence for one count of bank fraud and one count of signing a fraudulent tax return was 33 years.

He asked for and was granted 45 days to report to begin his sentence in a Southern Califo..

February 6, 2025

H2 Gambling Capital projecting $1.6 billion regulated betting handle for Super Bowl LIX

The Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX this weekend. H2 Gambling Capital joins the buildup with its breakdown of betting handle by state, and the teams and the spread.

We’re just days away from Super Bowl LIX with the Philadelphia Eagles taking on the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans.

Sunday 9 February’s kickoff marks the eleventh time New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl, becoming the most popular host city along with Miami. H2 expects a record amount of wagers will be riding on the game, the highest wagering on a single match in the US.

Jump to:

Projected handle and gross yield

Betting handle by state

Hold rates

How the teams match up

What to expect from the game

Benchmarking against Nevada

17% increase in wagers to generate $1.6 billion handle

H2 expects almost $1.6 billion to be wagered through onshore licensed sportsbooks. New York is likely to narrowly overtake Nevada as the state generating the most handle for the Super Bowl, ..

February 6, 2025

Super Bowl LIX: Record projections, prediction markets and prop scrutiny

This Sunday (9 February), the two-time reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs will defend their title against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. The game is America's biggest stage, for legal bookmakers, illegal ones and everything in between.

As of this writing, the Chiefs are 1.5-point favourites over the Eagles at most major books, with the exception of Caesars Sportsbook (-1). The line has held steady since it opened following the conference championships 26 January. Kansas City is almost universally -120 on the moneyline, with Philadelphia hovering around even (+100) up to +105 at Bet365.

The over/under for the game opened at 50.5 points, but books now vary between 49.5, 49 and 48.5. The fact that it has gone down is likely in response to the Eagles’ first-ranked defence. That said, Kansas City has scored at least 25 points in three of its four Super Bowl appearances since 2019. The only time it didn’t was 2021, when it lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-9.

This ..

February 5, 2025

Hawaii senate committee moves sports betting bill, but road to legalisation no sure thing

A Hawaii senate bill that would legalise digital sports betting moved forward on Tuesday (4 February). But not convincingly.

On Tuesday the senate economic development and technology committee advanced SB 1569, which would allow for statewide mobile sports betting. It is the second wagering bill to gain traction in the Hawaii legislature in a week.

On 31 January, the house economic development and technology committee moved HB 1308 forward. That bill is the house companion to SB 1569. In both chambers, the committees unanimously moved the bills, but several lawmakers did so “with reservations”. That suggests that the bills won’t have a smooth ride through the legislature.

The sports betting bills are two of at least eight gambling bills in the state legislature. Among them is a house bill that would only allow for gambling in designated tourist zones, a restriction not seen elsewhere in the US, but proposed and in practice in several Asian countries. There are also bills that wou..

February 5, 2025

Greenblatt expects player acquisition decline as BetMGM aims to be “home of the premium mass player”

Entain and MGM Resorts' JV, BetMGM, expects player acquisition rates to slow as it looks to benefit from a premium player base placing higher value bets.

While the group posted a falling EBITDA, once again in the negative, in its FY24 results on 4 February, it pointed to a “year of investment” which sought to increase player value and active users of its product.

Speaking to analysts following the group’s full-year earnings call on 4 February, BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt said during the year the focus had been on investing in its igaming strengths and refining its marketing, attribution, CRM and segmentation models.

These helped to drive a stronger performance in the latter part of the year.

Monthly user growth expected to slow

Monthly users in the operator’s fourth quarter were up 55% year-on-year. Greenblatt said this was achieved without the addition of any new states. Total monthly active users for the year hit 946,000, up 14% year-over-year.

However, while BetMGM toute..

February 5, 2025

Texas governor OK with legal sports betting, but his words may not matter

On Tuesday (4 February) Texas governor Greg Abbott said during a podcast that he doesn't “have a problem with online sports betting”. But he's not the Texas politician who has the power to call – or block – a vote in the senate.

Abbott, who has been the governor since 2015, said during his re-election run in 2021 that he wasn’t opposed to gambling in his state. According to the Texas Tribune, he and former house speaker Dade Phelan went “further” in their support.

The sticking point in the Lone Star State has long been lieutenant governor Dan Patrick. He has consistently said that he will not call a vote on an expansion of gambling in Texas unless there is a Republican majority to support it.

I've said repeatedly there is little to no support for expanding gaming from Senate GOP. I polled members this week. Nothing changed. The senate must focus on issues voters expect us to pass. We don’t waste time on bills without overwhelming GOP support. HB1942 won’t be referre..

February 4, 2025

AGA releases Super Bowl estimate for legal market only; projects record spend

This year’s projected figure for ‘legal handle’: $1.39 billion.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) released its annual Super Bowl betting handle estimate on Tuesday (4 February) morning – but took a different approach than in past years.

The headline news: American sports bettors are projected to legally wager a record $1.39 billion (£1.11 billion/€1.34 billion) on Super Bowl LIX. The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles at Caesars Superdome is set for Sunday (9 February).

But it is difficult to put that number in context relative to AGA estimates in prior years. Previously, the AGA estimated how many American adults would be betting and how much they would be risking across all regulated and unregulated options. The organisation did this for each of the post-PASPA Super Bowls. This included off-the-books “Super Bowl Squares” pools with family and friends.

Those projections, by year:

2019: 22.7 million adults, $6.0 billion
2020: 26 million adults, $6.8 bi..

February 4, 2025

Ohio governor wants to double sports betting tax… again

Ohio's governor, Mike DeWine, rolled out his final budget proposal on Monday (3 February) and it includes raising the legal sports betting tax on operators to 40%.

Should the state legislature agree, it would mark the second time since July 2023 that the tax was raised. In 2023, DeWine pushed through a budget that hiked the tax from 10% to 20%. That moved Ohio from a gambling-friendly tax state to one on the higher end of the spectrum.

If the tax goes to 40%, it would make Ohio the second-most expensive competitive market for wagering operators. New York has the highest tax rate at 51%. And last summer, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker initiated discussions to raise the tax in his state. Pritzker initially proposed more than doubling the 15% tax to 35%. But lawmakers went further, creating a sliding scale between 20% and 40%. The highest-revenue companies pay at the top end of the scale.

“We have known since day one that DeWine has hated sports betting,” gambling consultant Bren..

February 3, 2025

Virginia sports betting handle up in December but AGR well off record

Virginia reported a 23.4% year-on-year decline in sports betting adjusted gross revenue (AGR) for December, despite an increase in player spending.

The Virginia Lottery reported on 31 January that AGR in December amounted to $43.9 million (£35.6 million/€42.8 million). This falls short of $57.2 million in the previous year and 45.5% of November’s $80.6 million record.

All AGR in December came from online betting, with retail sports wagering at casinos leaving a $12,883 loss.

Virginia players spend $729.5 million on betting

As for spending, total handle for December was $734.4 million. This beats the previous year by 16% but is 3.5% behind the record $761 million bet in November. It is, however, the second-highest monthly amount on record.

Players wagered $729.5 million online during December and a further $4.9 million at retail facilities inside casinos.

This resulted in a state-wide hold of 5.98% for the month. Player winnings in December hit $684.8 million.

Tax tops $6.6 mill..

February 3, 2025

Robinhood to offer Super Bowl betting via Kalshi

Partnership with brokerage makes event contracts available to large swath of population.

Robinhood announced on Monday (3 February) morning that it will be offering event contracts via Kalshi for Super Bowl LIX, creating the potential for a significant expansion of prediction market event trading. The Super Bowl is set for Sunday (9 February) between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.

Front Office Sports was the first to report the announcement.

According to a press release from Robinhood, the brokerage views event contracts as “an opportunity to better serve our customers as their interests converge across the markets, news, sports and entertainment.” It plans to have event contracts available in all 50 states through Kalshi, saying they “leverage the power and rigour of the financial market structure to facilitate greater liquidity, transparency and price discovery”.

Access to Robinhood marketplace

The partnership furthers Kalshi’s rapid movement in getting Super Bo..

February 3, 2025

Many UK players turn to gambling for escapism says Gambling Commission report

In a special report using data from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, the UKGC has broken down the key motivators for UK gamblers, with escapism one of the driving factors.

On 30 January the UK Gambling Commission published an add-on piece of research to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) report released in July. The survey is the first comprehensive report looking at the behaviour of gamblers in Britain, including what the key motivators are for players across multiple verticals.

This latest report, which cites findings from the Reasons for Gambling Questionnaire (RGQ), considers the relationship between different gambling activities and the players’ reason for engaging in them.

The RGQ contained a series of 15 questions on the reasons GSGB participants gave for taking part in gambling. People who had gambled in the past 12 months were asked to state how often their main reason for gambling was indeed their key motivator across all activities they had listed. They..

February 3, 2025

Swedish report flags link between loot boxes and problem gambling

A report by Spelinspektionen has found a link between young adults that participated in gambling via video games while under age and risky gambling behaviours.

Published on 29 January, the study looks at the relationship between young people and gambling in Sweden. It focuses on individuals within the 18-24 age group and the results were presented to the government.

The results showed a link between those who started purchasing loot boxes as a minor and those who went on to show problematic gambling behaviours. Of those that purchased loot boxes before the age of 15, 87% displayed risky gambling behaviours as an adult.

Loot boxes and skin gambling on the rise

Among the stand-out findings was the increasing crossover between video games and online gambling. Loot boxes offer players the chance to purchase in-game items via a mystery box, while skin gambling using virtual goods, like player skins, to gamble.

Of all male young adults who took part in the survey, each had experienced ..

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Tag: Online sports betting