I said this a year ago and I’m even more certain now,\u201d <\/span><\/strong>Kezirian, who served as a sports anchor in Las Vegas for seven years, told Casino.org<\/em><\/span>.<\/em> \u201cThis will do nothing to Vegas. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n“Why? Because, the Supreme Court did not invent sports betting last May. It has been going on forever \u2026 We talk about the black-market all the time. It has already co-existed,” <\/span><\/strong>he added.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n“So, people who go to Vegas, except for the Super Bowl, except for March Madness, they don’t go there just to sports bet. They go there for bachelor, bachelorette parties, conventions, weekend getaways with the spouse, just reunions, whatever, and they happen to bet sports while they’re there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSince last June, when Delaware and New Jersey both went live, through to March, Nevada\u2019s sportsbooks have taken in nearly $4.6 billion in bets. The other six states that have reported data have handled nearly $3 billion, again with New Jersey\u2019s $2.3 billion making up the largest portion of the remainder.<\/strong><\/p>\nNobody Does It Better for Bettors<\/h2>\n As the first states see their operations mature and more yet come online, Nevada\u2019s share of the market will naturally decline, even if its books’ handles don\u2019t decline per se. However, Kezirian believes sports betting nationwide will help the books in Vegas and other parts of Nevada, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’ll already be a part of their daily behavior, so they’ll just happen to stop at a sportsbook,\u201d he said. \u201cThey’re more inclined to stop at a sportsbook, because [it’s part of] their daily routine.\u201d<\/p>\nVegas still leads the sportsbook industry by offering bettors an immersive experience, according to a few industry experts. Seen here, the book at the Mirage. (Image: thevegasparlay.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBoth Kezirian and Murphy both expressed some surprise that lawmakers from other states did not look more to Nevada when creating their sports betting bills.<\/p>\n
Analyst Murphy added that lawmakers should just get on a plane and fly to Las Vegas to see how sportsbooks run there. They\u2019d also likely see something he thinks is missing from most states that currently offer sports betting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there’s a pent-up demand that none of the states are really leveraging [which is] kind of the basic Nevada sportsbook experience,\u201d <\/strong>he said. \u201cGoing into a place where you can place bets with TV screens on the wall, you have a bunch of tickets \u2026 I think people enjoy that. I think if any of the states are trying to replicate that to some degree, they have a lot of success at it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat Lies Ahead<\/h2>\n The future of sports betting in America will see more states get involved in the action, both this year and beyond. But Lesniak told Casino.org<\/em> he was surprised at just how few have gotten on board already.<\/p>\nWhile the final number of states that decide to legalize sports betting remains unknown, other aspects of the industry\u2019s ancillary future are already starting to play out.<\/p>\n
For instance, sports media has embraced the industry. While betting lines were once just topics of discussion for preview shows, both ESPN<\/em> and FOX Sports<\/em> have started sports betting-topic shows, with Kezirian\u2019s Daily Wager<\/em> having started in March on ESPNews<\/em>.<\/p>\nDoug Kezirian, a former sports anchor in Las Vegas, hosts the Daily Wager<\/em>, a show that discusses sports betting topics. It runs weekdays on ESPNEWS and is available through ESPN’s mobile application. (Image: ESPN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBeyond just spreads and over-unders, the weekday show also examines how the sports news of the day affects betting.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd just within the last week, FOX<\/em> announced a partnership with The Stars Group<\/a> to start FOX Bet, which will allow bettors to place wagers on a multitude of sporting events online, although which states will award the new effort mobile gaming licenses is still undetermined.<\/p>\nBy the end of this year, the new venture also expects to roll out a free nationwide game that will award cash prizes to people who can correctly predict the results of sporting games.<\/p>\n
For Kezirian, while he still sees the need for retail sportsbooks, he also sees mobile and online betting representing the future of the industry. It\u2019s especially true since mobile technology has already transformed how fans watch games and get results.<\/strong><\/p>\nTwenty years ago, fans would watch ESPN\u2019s SportsCenter<\/em> to get all the scores and highlights from games they missed. Now, they can go to ESPN\u2019s Snapchat page or its Twitter feed to watch highlights and get scores instantly.<\/p>\nSo it only makes sense then for people who consume sports online to bet on it the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just lends itself to the appetite of the human being in 2019,\u201d Kezirian told Casino.org.<\/em><\/p>\nGoing Mobile<\/h2>\n Currently, Nevada and New Jersey allow mobile gaming, as does West Virginia, although its only mobile application is currently on hiatus. Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have announced plans to launch online sports betting later this year. Delaware, Mississippi, and New Mexico do not allow online sports betting.<\/strong><\/p>\nIf Tennessee’s bill becomes law, it would be the only state to allow sports betting exclusively online. Montana’s new law allows online gaming, but all bets, even online, must be made within the premises of an established gaming facility.<\/p>\n
The new laws in Indiana and Iowa also allow for online betting.<\/p>\n
\n
Other questions remain unanswered as well. While professional sports leagues have embraced sports betting more since the Supreme Court\u2019s landmark decision, they\u2019ve also worked to find ways they can develop revenue from it and still lobby states to exclude certain activities from betting laws. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nFor instance, the National Football League in a recent letter to New York officials encouraged them to allow the leagues to prohibit bets on player performances.<\/p>\n
Epilogue: One More Celebration<\/h2>\n On this May 14, sports betting will once again keep Lesniak off the golf course. This time, though, he\u2019ll be in Boston delivering a keynote address at a sports conference and signing copies of his new book.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll still find a way to celebrate the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what I’m going to do? I’m going to open up a bottle of Chateau Margaux,\u201d he said. \u201cA good French Bordeaux.\u201d<\/p>\n
A quick perusal shows bottles of the fancy wine selling for starting prices of $120 online, and going way up from there. But after all, Lesniak has a lot to toast on this day in history, and he will always have a place in its retelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
May 14, 2018: that\u2019s the day the sports betting world changed forever in the United States. It’s been a year since the overturn of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), and the push for massive US sports betting expansion has had a tumultuous 12 months. The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled a year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":104739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,13,61,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
A Year After PASPA: U.S. Sports Betting Growing But With Mixed Results<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n