Although undeniably a vast betting market, the US sports betting sector is currently dominated by a few key players, albeit with room for greater competition. 

Much of the US traffic is handled by North American-based companies, unsurprisingly, such as MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings, FanDuel and Rush Street Interactive (RSI).

However, international firms have had a long-standing presence in the US and are beginning to carve out greater slices of the pie for themselves, with notable examples being Australia’s PointsBet and the UK’s Entain – via its BetMGM subsidiary in cooperation with MGM – and bet365.

Discussing stateside developments on the latest episode of the Legal Sports Report (LSR), Co-Host Matt Brown highlighted the potential bet365 has for the US space.

“If you’re familiar with the gaming industry, you understand what a behemoth they are,” he noted. “That being said, I don’t know if you would say they’ve even tipped a toe in the US.

Agreeing with his Co-Host, Dustin Gouker added that bet365 does indeed have ambitions in the North American sector, and is a ‘sleeping giant’ with regards to its stateside development. 

“IT has not really done a whole lot, it is in New Jersey and licensed in Colorado, had a deal to be in New York which didn’t work out, and have a deal in Texas should that open up. 

“They set the stage for something, but bet365 could spend a zillion dollars to compete with DraftKings and FanDuel – it does not feel like that is a great use of its money right now, to go into the zero sum game where everybody is paying a million dollars for customers. 

He concluded: “There’s a lot of ground to be covered still in sports betting in the US, and bet365 have the war chest and the product to come in and compete, when and if it chooses to do so.

“That’s still easy to say, why are they not doing anything now? They’re basically just sitting here and waiting.”

Acknowledging that Denise Coates’ all-online enterprise is a ‘global powerhouse’ in betting and gaming, the hosts collectively agreed that shouldthsould the family-run, Stoke-on-Trent-based business enter the US market it would be a force to be reckoned with. 

Adam Candee, meanwhile, observed that as a privately owned company with substantial capital behind it, bet365 would have greater flexibility in the US than its publicly owned competitors. 

“They are not beholden to shareholders in the way that DraftKings, MGM and Caesars are. They can choose what they want to do when they want to do it, because of the liquidity and structure they have.”