The repeal of PASPA meant a race by all sorts of operators to gather market share in the expanding U.S. market. SuperBook, long having a presence in Las Vegas, was primed to be a key player in this blossoming industry, and has become SuperBook USA LLC. Their Executive VP of Operations, Jay Kornegay, joined our Becky Liggero to talk about how they’ve gone about expanding.
Kornegay began the discussion by explaining exactly what’s happening with his company. “Well we have separated the SuperBook at its old state in Westgate, Las Vegas, and we’re moving it to its own separate entity so it becomes SuperBook USA LLC, and we are going to expand our brand and operate in different jurisdictions,” he said.
But how is SuperBook setting up a competitive operation as they expand? Well we always like to give that 360 experience,” Kornegay noted. “We specialize in our FMV, the guest experience on the retail side, but everybody loves convenience, right? Everybody loves value, and that convenience factor that comes with mobile is so important, and important to the consumer. So a nice balance where they can find a place where they can migrate to and bet sports and enjoy all the activities, along with that convenience of having that mobile, that sportsbook in your hand, it’s a terrific combination.”
Of course, pretty much none of this could have happened without the repeal of PAPSA. “It was a huge turn, and just looking over the last couple of years, the climate for sports gambling really has changed,” Kornegay told Liggero. “I mean, it was just only a couple of years ago, Las Vegas couldn’t even advertise for the big game. And now we’re having an NFL franchise move to Las Vegas. So the times have changed, but in our world, it gives us opportunity. I thought some in our industry was threatened by it because we had a monopoly in Nevada, but we looked at it as an opportunity to expand our brand, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing though. The Department of Justice has been making it a little bit tricky, with their changing opinions on what the Wire Act means for gambling. “It certainly sent rippling vibes across the whole industry, to say the least,” he admitted. “And we’re still trying to figure that out. I’m not going to give you my opinion right now, but I know it created a slowdown.”
But while that certainly made deal making harder short term, Kornegay sees it as a mere speed bump. “I think it’s cooled off a little bit, and I don’t think there’s going to be that many changes, or if any change, certainly I’m for that,” he said. “But at that time when we first heard about it, it poured some cold water on all these deals that we’re being discussed at that time. So hopefully we get some clarification, and it was written so long ago, it really need to be re-written and brought up to date to our world that we have today, because it was written before we had TV remotes. It’s something that we are just looking and hoping for some clarification.”
