One of the biggest names in Las Vegas continues to pull up stakes in the mobile sports betting market as WynnBET exited the Empire State in late July which will pave the way for ESPNBET.
WynnBET Waves Goodbye
Market consolidation in the mobile sports betting industry has been fast and furious with WynnBET being the latest casualty. The Las Vegas gaming icon has shuttered its operations in the industry’s largest domestic market and will only have a mobile presence in Nevada while operating land-based casinos in the Silver State and elsewhere. New York customers will be allowed digital access to their accounts and withdraw funds up until August 29th.
The cracks in the armor began to show in August 2023 when WynnBET announced it was exiting eight markets including Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The rationale for the exit was essentially that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.
“In light of the continued requirement for outsized marketing spend through user acquisition and promotions in online sports betting, we believe there are higher and better uses of capital deployment for Wynn Resorts shareholders,” said Julie Cameron-Doe, Chief Financial Officer of Wynn Resorts.
“While we believe in the long-term prospects of iGaming, the dearth of iGaming legislation and the presence of numerous other investment opportunities available to us around the globe have led us to the decision to curtail our capital investment in WynnBET to focus primarily on those states where we maintain a physical presence,” Cameron-Doe continued.
Shifts in the Landscape
Mobile sports betting is becoming a much more exclusive community. Smaller operations that are having difficulty gaining traction are exiting those markets while the duopoly of FanDuel and DraftKings continues to flex, currently controlling approximately 73% of the online sports betting market in the United States.
In addition to those eight states, WYNNBET has also exited Michigan, Massachusetts, and now New York, leaving only a digital footprint in Nevada where it also maintains exclusive luxury retail properties, Wynn and Encore Las Vegas. Both of those sister properties have retail sportsbooks nestled within those facilities.
ESPNBET Coming to New York
Penn Entertainment, the parent company of ESPNBET, paid $25 million to Wynn Interactive Holdings for its New York license. After being vetted by the state’s regulatory body and clearing all the bureaucratic hurdles, ESPNBET has stated its platform will be live in New York at some point this fall.
CEO and president of PENN Entertainment, Jay Snowden, said, “This is an important development that will bring ESPN Bet to the largest regulated online sports wagering market in North America. Together with ESPN, we’re building a brand that is synonymous with sports betting, and operating in the New York market is key as we grow ESPN Bet across the US.”
This is a stark reversal from three years ago when commenting on New York’s highest-in-the-nation tax rate of 51% on sportsbooks’ revenues Snowden said, “I don’t think a single operator will make money in New York.”
But at that time Snowden had not yet struck a 10-year, $1.5 billion deal with ESPN to license its name and gain access to its media platforms to create ESPNBET. What a difference a few years makes.
