Inside Asian Gaming

October 2015 inside asian gaming 9 Making Book FootballBet.com Chairman and CEO David Leppo has been a bookmaker for decades, first in Santo Domingo and Mexico, now in Asia. In addition to online wagering on football and a full suite of international and US sports, FootballBet.com has nine locations in casinos in Cambodia and Laos. “A presence in the casino is a natural channel for sports books to customers,” Mr Leppo says. “It’s a self-marketing product. The operator benefits from the relationship with a percentage of bet profit [earned in the casino] and from those clients betting online. They can see the numbers generated through their portal.” FootballBet.com has a land and internet gaming license from North Cagayan Gaming and Amusement Corporation in the Philippines. “Unfortunately, licensees in the Philippines are not recognized anywhere else except in the Philippines,” Mr Leppo says. “Currently, there are no Asia regional licenses.” That forces online betting into a “gray area” legally. Estimates of the Asian sports gaming market are all over the map. Some put it around $70 billion. Global online players such as Bet365 and Pinnacle are big in the region along with Asia-focused MaxBet. Online sports wagering is closely tied to online casinos. “We’re finding online casino gambling a natural segue to sports betting,” Mr Leppo says. Macau’s slowdown has boosted revenue in both categories. Chinese “want to gamble, but do it online now that it is harder for mainlanders to get into Macau,” he says. The biggest Asia sports betting action is on European football. So-called sports lotteries, such as Singapore, that require players to pick the winners of a pre-selected slate of games tend to encourage players to graduate to real sports betting, where they can choose their own action, according to Mr Leppo. For FootballBet.com, he says 75% of the betting comes from in-running wagering during games, betting on a vast menu of Estimates of the Asian sports gaming market are all over the map. Some put it around $70 billion. Global online players such as Bet365 and Pinnacle are big in the region along with Asia-focused MaxBet. propositions from goals to red cards to corners. “It’s not two, three, four dimensional, it’s 20 dimensional,” Mr Leppo says, in comparison to pre-kickoff wagering. In-running wagers are based on constantly updated real time algorithms. Big operators may compile their own algorithms, while smaller companies use specialists such as Bet Radar and Don Best. FootballBet.com accepts bets up to US$100,000 on major tier events, $10,000 on lower tier events. “If we’re overloaded on one side, we’ll trade off the excess if moving the line or odds does not entice business to come in on the other side, no different than a commodities broker,” Mr Leppo says. The Venetian lounge features a 100 x 10 foot (30.5 x 3.05 meter) video screen capable of showing one event or divisible into up to 42 separate ones, plus a separate screen dedicated to racing. The lounge has 118 personal betting stations with computer screens and takes wagers on all major race and sporting events. Most operators offer wagering on handheld device provided by the lounge or on your own phone from your seat at the bar or anywhere within Nevada, restricted to that state by geolocation software. An expansion of sport betting in Macau would have similar restrictions to ensure that operators don’t take bets from China or other jurisdictions where sports wagering remains illegal. Macau Slot (and the Hong Kong Jockey Club) currently operate phone and online betting restricted to players physically within the territory. Proponents of sports betting contend geolocation blocking works; skeptics say there’s always a way around to beat the software; realists observe that illegal sports betting is happening now online, without Macau casinos in the mix. Sports book lounges in casinos will extend Macau’s destination appeal, Mr Klebanow suggests. “First, it broadens the demographic mix of gaming customers by attracting people who may not be attracted to a casino by traditional games of chance.” The sports bettors skew younger and male, and can also broaden the casino’s ethnic mix. “Today Macau does not do a very good job in attracting gamers from India, primarily because Indians do not feel particularly comfortable at Macau’s baccarat tables,” Mr Klebanow says. “Indians are rabid sports bettors, particularly on cricket. Sports betting would allow Macau casino operators to target the gamers in that country with a suite of sports wagering products unavailable in their home country.” Gaming analysts said the FIFA World Cup last year helped start In Focus