Another day, another laundry list of US sports betting deal-making to review, so let’s get at it.
On Monday, around the same time that the MGM-GVC joint venture was announcing a tribal sports betting deal in California, the Nevada-based USBookmaking announced a deal to provide “sports betting risk services” at the Santa Ana Star Casino & Hotel in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, which was founded by the Pueblo of Santa Ana tribe.
Like California, New Mexico has yet to formally authorize legal wagering within its borders. However, USBookmaking says the new casino sportsbook will open on October 16, apparently based on the Pueblo of Santa Ana Gaming Commission’s assertion that wagering is covered under the Class III provisions in the tribe’s gaming compact with the state.
New Mexico’s state government has yet to affirm that assertion, and the tribe appears to be hedging its bet by limiting itself to on-site retail wagering, at least for the time being. Regardless, the casino, which serves the Albuquerque market, will undoubtedly do a brisk business should the state decline to intervene.
USBookmaking is a venture of several longtime Nevada bookmaking veterans, including Vic Salerno, the former chairman of William Hill US, who was last seen birthing pari-mutuel fantasy sports operator US Fantasy Sports.
In July, New Mexico’s Lottery Authority announced it was exploring the possibilities of new sports lottery products, while the state’s racing operators have said they expect to be allowed to offer sports betting if the state formally authorizes non-tribal venues to get in on the action.
SCI-GAMES KNOWS BEST
On Tuesday, gaming technology provider Scientific Games Corporation (SGC) announced that it had reached a deal to acquire the real-time betting data and pricing operations of the Nevada-based Don Best Sports Corporation and DBS Canada Corporation. The acquired companies will become part of SGC’s SG Digital interactive division.
SGC CEO Barry Cottle said the deal will further enhance his company’s North American B2B sports betting offering, which is already operational in Delaware, New Jersey and Mississippi. The goal is to add Don Best’s “unparalleled proprietary pricing services” to SGC’s “top-tier European sportsbook operating experience,” which includes the globally respected OpenBet platform.
NEOGAMES BOLSTERS WILLIAM HILL US PLATFORM
Finally, Luxembourg-based iGaming and lottery solutions provider NeoGames has struck a deal to enhance the US sports betting platform of UK bookmaker William Hill. Hills, which took a 29% stake in NeoGames back in 2015, will incorporate NeoGames’ player account management (PAM) system into its new US proprietary platform, which aims to launch in 2019.
NeoGames’ PAM is already in use by several US lottery operators, including the Michigan Lottery’s iGaming site. William Hill CEO Philip Bowcock claimed NeoGames’ PAM was “already more feature-rich than any other sports-betting platform live in the US” and using a proven third-party product provided Hills with “faster time to market and reduced risk than if we were to build from scratch ourselves.”
