Each Friday, we’ll comb through as many articles, tweets and podcasts as we can find related to the world of sports betting and daily fantasy sports, and publish the good stuff here.
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Only 3 percent of the projected $4.76 billion to be bet on the Super Bowl by Americans will be wagered legally in Nevada.
The rest of the money will be bet with offshore sportsbooks and local bookmakers.
“Thanks to the failed federal ban on sports betting, Americans are sending billions of their hard-earned dollars to corner bookies, shady offshore operators and other criminal enterprises,” Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, said in the release announcing the Super Bowl estimate. “The big question we’re asking: Is 2018 finally the year when governments, sporting bodies and the gaming industry work together to put the illegal sports betting market out of business?”
The Supreme Court is reviewing the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), the federal prohibition on state-sanctioned sports betting. Legal experts believe the court is poised to lift the prohibition and give states options to legalize sports betting. A small handful of states are exempt from PASPA, with only Nevada allowed to offer betting on single games. A ruling is expected as early as March and no later than the end of June.
In the meantime, Americans are not having a problem finding ways to bet on the Super Bowl. The $4.76 billion figure is the same as Facebook’s third-quarter profit in 2017.
Earlier this week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell again shared the league’s stance on sports betting.
Goodell, appearing Tuesday on ESPN’s Golic & Wingo, acknowledged that the gambling landscape in the U.S. is changing and says the league has evolved on the issue, but its top priority remains the same.
“You don’t want to do anything that’s going to impact negatively on the integrity of our game,” Goodell said. “You want to be certain that there are no outside influences on our game, and that fans don’t even have any issue with that; they understand, whether it’s a perception or not, that there is no influence on our game. And that’s something we stand firmly behind on the integrity of our game.”
Sports betting legislation has surfaced in three Midwest states.
Three different sports betting bills surfaced in the Midwest this week, demonstrating the quickening pace with which legislatures are looking to address the issue of single-game wagering.
The new legislation appeared in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, three gaming states that could all generate significant revenue directly from sports betting while also creating a new tool to drive customers to their gaming facilities.
All three bills, if enacted, would take effect if New Jersey prevails in its US Supreme Court case to strike down the federal ban.
Blockchain technology is being used for sports betting.
The key to providing these advanced sports betting features is the betting token. In the blockchain world, tokens provide access to more secure, transparent ecosystems in which parties can safely transact over encrypted smart contracts. Once a betting account is linked to a smart digital wallet, bets and automatic payouts can be activated with no delays.
Crypto tokens have been commonly based on the “ethereum-20” standard and more exchanges are hosting trading across multiple tokens and cryptocurrencies. New token standards offering different advantages are emerging. The BlitzPredict token, called BPZ, for example, is based on the Bancor Protocol, a smart contract with built-in convertibility. The token can be immediately used on partner sports betting platforms without requiring the use of a third party exchange.
Nevada set records for yearly sports betting handle and revenue in 2017.
The state’s sportsbooks won a record $248.7 million off the $4.8 billion wagered in 2017, according to numbers released Wednesday by Nevada Gaming Control.
The record amount won in 2017 tops the previous mark set in 2015 by nearly $17 million. The state has set a record for handle — the amount bet — in eight consecutive years.