The month in US sports betting: Which sports media assets will be snapped up next?
Eilers & Krejcik Gaming asks whether The Action Network and VSIN will be next in the industry's consolidation efforts
Game on in TennesseeOn election night, US sports betting scores a hat trickLouisiana, MarylandSouth Dakota
- US sports betting continues to expand space. The activity is now legal in 26 states accounting for about 45% of the US adult population. Of note, 18 of those states have legalized sports betting since PASPA was overturned in May 2018.
- The voting wasn’t close. The ballot questions in Louisiana (55 of 64 counties representing 97% of the state’s adult population approved sports betting), Maryland (66% of voters approved), and South Dakota (59% of voters approved) passed with room to spare.
- Simplicity was key. We think the ballot questions fared well in all three states because those questions were phrased simply and concisely. For context, those questions meaningfully outperformed a very awkwardly phrased sports betting ballot question in Colorado that passed last year by a narrow 51-49 margin.
- Enabling legislation needed. Voter approval was merely the first step toward sports betting implementation. All three states must still enact enabling legislation, in which key sports betting policy issues (e.g, who operates, tax rate, delivery channels) will be addressed.
- Positive read-through for key battleground states. Some of the largest states left on the map—including California, Texas, and Georgia—will have to approve sports betting through a public vote, per our research. On face, this week’s results, together with historical results in New Jersey, Arkansas, and Colorado, bode well for sports betting’s voter-approval prospects in those states.