Inside Asian Gaming

October 2015 inside asian gaming 11 Macau’s revenue decline. But with sports betting in casinos the World Cup and other events on the sports calendar create opportunities for promotions to encourage bettors to come to Macau and wager legally. “In the United States casinos use the Super Bowl [the American football championship game] as the basis for creating a party weekend,” Mr Klebanow says. “They invite their best players to the property and build a weekend event around the game. Formula One racing, football, cricket, rugby, all have large appeal in Asia and championship games and tournaments allow the casino to create parties built around those events.” Mr Rittvo adds that the opening weekends of America’s college and professional football seasons, as well as NCAA college basketball’s championship tournament known as March Madness bring big crowds to Las Vegas betting lounges. It’s largely a mass market crowd that comes for the atmosphere of watching a big game on big screens with other fans, making bets, buying drinks and meals as they enjoy the scene. Given the legal situation, Macau operators are cautious about broaching the issue of sports betting. “The company would certainly evaluate the opportunity should it materialize at some point,” Las Vegas Sands Senior Vice President for Global Communications and Corporate Affairs Ron Reese says. The Macau government has the ball on sports wagering. Putting sports betting licenses in play could unleash new waves of excitement on casino floors and a new stream of revenue. It looks like time to take a shot. Editor at large Muhammad Cohen also blogs for Forbes on gaming throughout Asia and wrote “Hong Kong On Air,” a novel set during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance and cheap lingerie. In Focus (including an exclusive partnership), the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer, and Eilers believes it passed FanDuel this year. Eilers estimates each privately held company has a $1 billion valuation. Yahoo’s entry into the field this year has been “underwhelming,” Mr Krejcik says. Eilers is also skeptical about Amaya/PokersStars taking meaningful market share from the top two. CBS Sports joined the fray in August, hoping to exploit DFS interest during the US professional football season. At a G2E press briefing, American Gaming Association CEO Geoff Freeman characterized DFS as a “gray area” in the current regulatory environment. “If it’s legal, our casinos need to be involved,” Mr Freeman said, adding that casinos see DFS “not as a threat, but as a partner we hope to work with in the future.” Global Market Advisors Partner Andrew Klebanow says, “Casinos in the US are still trying to understand this phenomenon, how to integrate it into their product offering and how to monetize it.” “DFS players are not hard core gamblers, in fact most do not go to Vegas or visit a casino more than once a year,” Mr Krejick says, citing an Eilers DFS player survey released in July. “The number one reason players cite for participating in DFS is excitement/thrill factor and [that it] makes games more fun to watch/engaging. Very few said they do it for monetary reasons.” DFS offerings remain largely focused on the major North American sports—baseball, American football, basketball and hockey, plus US soccer, NASCAR racing and mixed martial arts on DraftKings. “It’s largely a North American centric experience right now, but no reason for it not to take off in overseas markets,” Mr Krejcik says. “Fantasy sports has made a little bit of a splash in Asia,” FootballBet.com Chairman and CEO David Leppo says. He expects the trend to take hold in the region over the next three to five years. “If there is a way to tap into some of the international basketball leagues, soccer [football] leagues and cricket leagues, then the markets would grow substantially,” The Innovation Group CEO David Rittvo says. And don’t forget Japanese baseball. Leading DFS companies FanDuel and DraftKings currently hold a combined 95% market share, Eilers estimates. “The number one reason players cite for participating in DFS is excitement/thrill factor and [that it] makes games more fun to watch/engaging. Very few said they do it for monetary reasons.”