Good morning. On today’s agenda:

• Fanatics Sportsbook goes live in four states.

• AGA says online gambling drove growth in Q2.

• Rank CEO says company has “turned a corner”.

• GiG says business split will “drive success”.

Work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger.

‘Redefining’ OSB

Fanatics Sportsbook is now live in four states.

Harder, better, faster, stronger: The betting public in Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee and Maryland got their first real sight of the Fanatics Sportsbook after the company announced its official launch yesterday.

• Scot McClintic, chief product officer at Fanatics Betting and Gaming, said Fanatics had taken the patient route to build a product that was a “faster, easier and a more rewarding sports betting experience”.

• He said the new app – built on an Amelco code base and using feeds from the recently acquired Banach – would “redefine” the expectations of customers who could look forward to an “unparalleled speed of feature improvement, delivery and innovation”.

• The app has been in beta testing for the past six months.

• The company said the recent $225m PointsBet acquisition – including Banach – will “supercharge” its platform.

Currency movements: The much-trailed FanCash rewards program will allow consumers to earn anything between 1% and 5% of any wager in the Fanatics store. It can be converted either dollar-for-dollar into free bets or can be used to purchase team merchandise.

• The rewards are tiered with same-game parlays attracting the largest reward.

Crossing the Rubicon

Taking the laurels: Meanwhile, the dedicated Caesars Palace iCasino app has also been officially unveiled. It is now available in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ontario in Canada. 

• The company said the app was the “crown jewel” of its iGaming portfolio, which includes the Caesars Sportsbook, Tropicana Online, Harrah’s Online and WSOP.com

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Online Q2 surge

Online revenue worth 23% of total gaming revenue in Q2.

By the numbers: The latest data from the AGA showed revenue from online gaming rose 43% YoY in Q2 to $3.68bn versus a near 1% increase for commercial land-based gaming to $12.4bn, leaving the quarterly total up 8% to $16.1bn. For the first six months of the year, commercial gaming rose 12% to $32.7bn.

• Breaking down the online figures, sports betting generated revenues of $2.3bn in Q2, up 57% YoY, while iCasino was up 22.5% to $1.48bn.

• AGA CEO Bill Miller said the figures proved the industry’s post-pandemic recovery was “no fluke”.

New Jersey and Massachusetts

New Jersey: Atlantic City’s casinos suffered a 3% YoY drop in revenue in July to $290m while iCasino rose 13.5% to $155m. Sports betting was also on the up with GGR rising 34% to $57.6m.

Massachusetts: DraftKings maintained its dominance on sports betting with 50% share of the total GGR of $30m. FanDuel was a distant second with 34% followed by BetMGM with 8.6%. Massachusetts land-based GGR was down 0.1% YoY to $98.6m.

Rank on the up

CEO John O’Reilly says the UK bingo to casino group has “turned a corner”.

Rolling with the punches: After listing a litany of challenges faced by the company in recent years, from the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, O’Reilly said Rank was on its way back despite like-for-like operating profits falling more than 50% YoY to £20.3m. “We’ve had a lot thrown at us and we’re on our way up,” he said. Revenues rose 7% to £680m.

• With the Grosvenor Casinos business, O’Reilly noted that in London trading was “comparatively soft” with a lack of high-spending visitors from abroad. London venues LFL revenues were flat at £99m, while the rest of the UK was up 6% to £207m.

• “Outside of London, the picture is much stronger,” he added. 

• Customer visits were up 7% YoY.

• O’Reilly said the casino would also benefit from the changes proposed in the White Paper and gaming machine allocations. “It is very material; it will enable casinos to compete effectively,” he added.

• O’Reilly said he expected a doubling of machines in UK casinos plus the addition of sports betting making casinos “more attractive” to the audience.

Cull before the storm: For bingo, he said that coming out of the pandemic there were “simply too many bingo halls”. He said Rank had closed 15 of the weaker venues and now had a 56-strong estate.

• Pointing to the 7% growth in Mecca venues’ NGR to £134m, O’Reilly said “it’s been a very long time since Mecca saw double-digit revenue growth”, he added.

• Digital revenue grew 10% to £203m. Mecca was up 9% to £72.6m and Grosvenor rose 14% to £57m, while the Spanish Enracha and YoBingo business saw a 12% rise in NGR to £24m. Its legacy Stride brands was up 8% to £49.2m.

Split ends

GiG’s media and platform OSB split on course for H124.

Record breakers: Current CEO Richard Brown said GiG’s decision to split the sportsbook backend business from the affiliate arm was being done for “no other reason than to drive success for the group and shareholders”.

• Earlier this week, the group named Richard Carter as its new CEO for its platform and sportsbook division while Jonas Warrer will take charge of the gaming affiliate arm. 

• GiG revenues rose 40% to €31m and adj. EBITDA was up 68% to €14m in Q2. Media division revenues increased 47% to €21.7m with adj. EBITDA up 46% to €10.3m. 

• Magnificent seven: Brown noted that seven brands had gone live on the platform and sportsbook business over the summer. Revenues for the segment rose 27% YoY to €9.3m and adj. EBITDA was up 194% to €3.7m, but revenue was down QoQ by 7%.

Don’t ask, don’t get: GiG’s casino affiliate AskGamblers enjoyed a 40% rise in FTDs in Q2. He said he “didn’t exaggerate” the extent to which the GiG team had gone through the AskGamblers sites root and branch to optimize the product,

• “It's that level of granularity that the teams go through, making sure that every single page is as performant as possible,” he told analysts.

• He noted that FTDs were up 40% and this had helped to “rebuild” operator trust in the brand.

Earnings in brief

Raketech: The gaming affiliate provider saw revenue rise 56% YoY to €17.6m, with EBITDA up 45% to €5.5m. The company said the growth was driven by its sub-affiliate network and the continued growth at its Casumba operation.

• The company kept its guidance for the year of revenue between €65m and €70m with EBITDA at €13m-€15m. In Q3 to date, July revenue rose 77% to €6.9m. 

SharpLink Gaming: Revenue rose 86% YoY to $3.3m helped by the Dec22 acquisition of SportsHub. Affiliate marketing revenue rose 182% to $306k.

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Call recall

FansUnite: CEO Scott Burton said FansUnite anticipated its affiliate live activation business betting hero to be cash flow positive in Q4 with three full months of College and NFL football ahead. 

• He noted the Chameleon platform, which the company sold to betr, had been “costing us the most to run”.

Playmaker: Brazil is “five years away from being awesome”, CEO Jordan Gnat told analysts, adding that he was “incredibly bullish” on the market given the company’s presence in the country’s sports media market. 

• Its subsidiary Futbol Sites recorded 300 million user sessions and the OSB segment grew 88% YoY.

• Having acquired the Québec-based sports betting affiliate La Poche Bleue for C$8.8m, Gnat said Playmaker will relaunch its website and leverage its strong brand and “built-in community”. 

Newslines

Mystery buyer: Esports Entertainment Group said an institutional investor has agreed to buy a million shares of the company’s stock for ~$1m as well as pre-funded warrants to purchase an additional 4m shares for 19.35¢ per share. Proceeds will be used to “execute its turnaround and growth strategy”.

NeoGames is to provide content to the Pennsylvania Lottery under an agreement with Brookfield Business Partners’ Scientific Games.

Calendar

• Aug 17: Gambling.com, Super Group

• Aug 22: Better Collective (e), Catena Media

• Aug 23: Better Collective

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