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Empire City Strikes Back: MGM Buys NY Racino For $850 Million

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MGM made it clear that sports betting was going to be a priority this year. It discussed it on its most recent earnings call and at the Sports Betting USA conference late last year.

The company expected the recent ruling from the Supreme Court to open up the possibility of legalized sports betting in the United States. It spent the last few months ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision preparing for the new sports betting landscape.

On Tuesday, MGM announced it entered into an agreement with Empire City Casino in Yonkers, New York. It is possible the latest acquisition for the Nevada-based company supports their sports betting priorities.

MGM buys Empire Casino in New York

MGM has been trying to break into the New York gaming market for at least the last five years. They were unsuccessful in obtaining one of four casino licenses made available when the gambling expansion law passed in late 2013.

MGM is buying Empire City Casino for $850 million and expects the deal to finalize in the first quarter of 2019. The racino reportedly earned about $230 million in net revenue for the year ending March 31, 2018.

Jim Murren, chairman and CEO of MGM said following in a press release announcing the sale:

We are excited to announce the addition of Empire City to the MGM Resorts portfolio. This acquisition represents an excellent opportunity to further solidify our presence on the East Coast, and in particular, expand our reach into the high-density New York City region. We believe this transaction enhances our free cash flow profile and presents attractive future opportunities for the Company, and we look forward to welcoming the Empire City team and guests to the MGM Resorts family.

MGM and New York sports betting

With the purchase of Empire Casino, MGM is ready to be early to market in the New York sports betting scene. New York is just one of several states that have addressed the sense of urgency around sports betting with new legislation.

Sports betting is already legal via a voter referendum, and New York can regulate it for commercial casinos. Racetracks, including Empire City, are not addressed in the existing law.

Assemblymember Gary Pretlow, the head of the gaming committee, represents Empire City as part of his district. He is planning to introduce sports betting legislation as early as this week. Legal Sports Report obtained a copy of the draft of the proposed bill.

The New York legislature is scheduled to wrap up its session on June 20. Legislators will have to act fast if they want sports betting in place sooner rather than later.

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MGM is ready to expand its sports betting operation

MGM owns several properties in states where sports betting will likely launch soon.

In New Jersey, MGM owns Borgata. MGM is ready to launch New Jersey sports betting pending legislation. The New Jersey Senate and Assembly are targeting a June 7 vote on sports betting bill.

Mississippi already legalized sports betting. State officials indicate sports betting will launch by the end of summer. MGM owns two properties in the state.

Additionally, MGM may have some interest in the Pennsylvania sports betting market. Pennsylvania passed a gaming expansion law last year that made additional casinos licenses available. There were rumors that MGM was talking to Sands to gain entry into the market – although that is not confirmed.

What is not a rumor is MGM wanting to expand sports betting beyond Nevada.

The company already operates a thriving Nevada sports betting operation. The infrastructure that is in place allows MGM to move fast into new markets where it has a presence.

All that is needed now is a green light from the states.

Photo by Ritu Manoj Jethani / Shutterstock.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DraftKings Wants You To Meister This Year’s World Cup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draft Kings Inc. gets ahead of the competition, quite literally, by partnering with Jägermeister in its “Real Shot” campaign that will let fans start their own madness for the 2018 World Cup.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with DraftKings to launch this first-to-market bracket-style competition that offers consumers a compelling, integrated sports experience and positions Jägermeister as the perfect way to enjoy the game.”

Despite, the U.S. men’s team not making the cut, soccer fans can now make their own brackets and bet which teams have the real shot at winning the world’s largest international soccer tournament.

Chris Peddy, chief marketing officer of Mast-Jägermeister U.S., said this in a release about Real Shot:

“With millions of engaged soccer fans in the U.S., Jägermeister, the unofficial shot of football worldwide, believes every fan has a real team and every team has a real shot at winning. We are thrilled to be partnering with DraftKings to launch this first-to-market bracket-style competition that offers consumers a compelling, integrated sports experience and positions Jägermeister as the perfect way to enjoy the game.”

Getting into the game

Together, DraftKings and Jägermeister created a sort of March Madness-style bracket. Soccer fans can pick the team they expect to win, and get into that team’s community.

Then, the fans can pick a winner for the 48 games and snag points on DraftKings’ customized scoring system.

These scores will fill two leaderboards: The Meister Leaderboard for all fans and the Community Leaderboard for the fans of the same team.

By engaging with content on the site, players can earn extra points. Group play points will also carry over to the knockout stage. Each game of knockout will require fan choices for winners. That includes the following phases:

  • Round of 16
  • Quarter-Finals
  • Semi-Finals
  • Final

Perks for play

Players in the top 500 on the Meister Leaderboard at the end of group play will receive Jägermeister-branded prizes. These players are otherwise known as “Meister Leaders.”

Comparatively, “Community Meisters” are the top five on the Community Leaderboard. At the end of the tournament, these five will win country-specific prizing from their community team and a Jägermeister jacket.

The “Meister,” or the fan that has the most points following the competition will win an all-expenses-paid trip to the winning team’s country.

Included in this VIP soccer experience is:

  • Game tickets
  • Transportation
  • Swag
  • Extra cash

Sports betting ruling changing the DFS landscape

This effort comes as no surprise following the Supreme Court ruling on sports betting. Already, there have been a variety of responses to this ruling. Some football players are even striking back already at sports betting legalization efforts as they supposedly violate rights of publicity.

Even though each state must develop its own sports betting legalization, some aren’t waiting around for legalized nationwide sports betting.

DraftKings Sportsbook launched its campaign in New Jersey already with marketing on billboards and transit signage.

For the record, this is DraftKings’ first foray into sports betting; this is not daily fantasy sports. But, over time, DFS operators have kept a safe distance from sports gambling and sports betting in favor of fantasy sports.

Legal Sports Report reported that in November of last year, executives started pivoting, expressing interest with internal memos and relocations to Boston (headquarters) and Hoboken (new office).

DraftKings also hired a new Head of Sportsbook for the new opportunity out of that New Jersey office. Already, DraftKings was seeking partnerships to hit the market with a land-based casino licensee or partner familiar with sportsbook tech.

With Jägermeister, all it took was disappointment to get involved.

With the US men’s team not making it into the World Cup, Jägermeister took it a bit as a loss. Its football roots date back to 1973.

Jägermeister was the first to put its logo on a sports jersey for a German football club. While its sister team in Germany (and as a German-owned company) may still have a chance, this opportunity presented itself as another way to get in the game, Peddy said to AdWeek.

Worldly association?

Interestingly enough, DraftKings and Jägermeister are not official FIFA World Cup sponsors, so you won’t see trademarks or specific references to World Cup, reported AdAge.

Others are also jumping on this bandwagon, including Fox Sports and genetic research firm 23andMe. According to AdAge, the partnership encourages enthusiasts to select the team that represents their ancestral origins. Consumers will do this with digital, social and out-of-home executions and branded store displays in Best Buy stores. That way, 23andMe customers can find connection via their DNA.

Others looking to be in the market by NFL season 2018? Paddy Power Befair and FanDuel. Both are rushing the US sports betting market to drive profit.

Soccer isn’t the only game DraftKings is looking to change up this year. DraftKings also recently released a new PGA format that matches the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for future major PGA golf tournaments.

Photo by Starikov Pavel / Shutterstock.com

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World Poker Tour Move To Las Vegas Esports Arena Could Spark Player Revolt

Perhaps the World Poker Tour was just putting the idea out there. Maybe they just wanted to see how players would react to the idea of delaying all its televised final tables next season before moving them to Esports Arena Las Vegas. If so, there’s still time to nix the plan.

However, if it’s a plan the WPT is married to, they’ve a got a public relations nightmare on their hands. One that may soon turn into a full-fledged revolt.

Reaction from tour regulars has been decidedly negative. The overwhelming sentiment appears to be asking players who make a final table to make a trip out to Las Vegas several weeks later to finish it up will deter recreational players, foreigners and pros with lives outside of poker from playing WPT events altogether.

The WPT has spent the past 16 seasons promoting the game and the people who play it like no one else. The tour has always been player-friendly. But for some taking a rather extremist view, this move undoes all that:

The WPT plan

Overly critical overreactions from those with a tendency to do that aside, the WPT is likely making several mistakes here. Not the least of which is basing their decision to do this on some rather flawed logic.

The plan for the WPT’s 17th season is to move all nine televised WPT final tables to the $25 million Esports Arena Las Vegas at the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 30,000-square-foot, multilevel arena is actually owned by WPT parent company Ourgame. It is designed to host competitive gaming events like high-stakes esports tournaments. It features a competition stage, 50-foot LED video wall, and telescopic seating. There are also PC and console gaming stations and a network TV-quality production studio.

For the WPT, that last feature might really be the key.

Moving all nine of its televised final tables to Esports Arena Las Vegas will allow the tour to save the cost of trucking its TV crew and all its staging, gear and equipment back and forth across the country. The only problem with that being the WPT is asking players to shoulder the additional burden of a trip to Las Vegas to help them find those savings.

WPT CEO Adam Pliska said as soon as WPT brass saw the space, they knew they wanted to use it in some way. Perhaps they should have gone to the players to ask them how first.

Of course, nothing is set in stone just yet. The WPT’s Vice President of Global Tour Management Angelica Hael said moving final tables from one venue to another, particularly one that’s out of state, will require various regulatory body and gaming commission approvals.

Assuming they get that for all nine stops, when those events reach the traditional WPT final table of six, they’ll stop. The final tables will be played out in groups, happening anywhere from an estimated three to six weeks after each event.

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WPT Vice President of Marketing David Gitter said it could be a win for the WPT, various sponsors and players. This is the big flaw in its plan. The WPT assumes players will be able to snatch up some of that sponsorship money in the weeks between making a final table and playing it.

Of course, the World Series of Poker and it’s now-scrapped November Nine experiment has shown how this works. Or doesn’t. The truth is, it’s not likely to happen in any kind of meaningful way. The November Nine was the same delayed-final-table format. Only November Niners had months to pick up sponsor dollars, which, by the end, weren’t really there.

The WPT has perhaps been better at securing sponsor money than anybody else in the business of poker. In fact, Gitter claims the tour enjoys over 2,000 partnerships with various sponsors. How they plan to help players get in on all of that isn’t exactly clear.

The WPT is also looking at the venue for the opportunity it may provide to market to a bigger audience. The problem with that being the esports and poker demographics are almost the same. Going after esports fans may be an attempt to appeal to younger audiences.

But is it worth the trade off? Will viewership gains make up for the 25 to 50 percent drop in field sizes some are estimating? Is marketing to esports fans worth alienating the people who support the tour?

Poker’s most storied venue?

The WPT wants to turn Esports Arena Las Vegas into poker’s Churchill Downs, Madison Square Garden, or Augusta National. That’s a little contrived at best, and ignores the fact players have a choice these days.

Mid- to high-stakes poker tournaments around the US and beyond fill the calendar. The WPT isn’t the only game in town. And if it continues to make decisions its player base disagrees with, they’ll simply go elsewhere.

At some point, it’ll become impossible to call Esports Arena poker’s most storied venue, because nobody will be playing in it.

Lead image courtesy of World Poker Tour

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The 2018 WSOP Schedule Provides A Little Something For Everyone

A good business observes their customers and adjusts their offerings to keep their customers from going elsewhere. And that is exactly what the 2018 World Series of Poker schedule is designed to do.

The WSOP may bring poker players from all around the world to the desert of Las Vegas, Nevada ever summer, but the tournaments around town are plentiful and very enticing.

WSOP responds to players trends

Years back, when the Venetian Deep Stacks started luring players away from the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino, the WSOP answered by offering deep stack tournaments of their own.

When the Aria started attracting high-rollers to their property, the WSOP answered by adding some high roller tournaments to the schedule and a high-roller cash game area to keep more players on site.

And now that the popularity of pot-limit Omaha continues to rise, the WSOP answered the call by making it easier for players to find their new favorite game on the tournament schedule.

New events for the 2018 WSOP

The WSOP added nine new events overall to this summer’s schedule. Some events are replacing others, while a few are brand new. Overall, there is an 8% increase in events that the WSOP is hoping will translate to an even bigger increase in tournament registrations.

PLO events continue to grow

For the past few years, the WSOP schedule reflects the growth of PLO as one of the more popular poker variants. This year continues is seeing that trend continue.

There are three brand new PLO events on this year’s schedule. They are:

  • Event #11: $365 PLO GIANT
  • Event #67: 1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty
  • Event #47: $565 WSOP.com ONLINE Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed

These three events join four other PLO events excluding the mixed game variants where Omaha is played.

Probably the most exciting of the new events is the PLO GIANT which gives those with an edge in the game the most affordable opportunity at winning a bracelet.

You can expect huge crowds as professional and amateur players take their shot in one of five starting flights that feature unlimited reentries and payouts if you make until the end of the day.

Taking a stab at the high-roller market

The $111,111 High Roller for One Drop has morphed into the fan favorite, Event #78 $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop this year, leaving a hole in the schedule for another high-roller.

The WSOP answered that problem two-fold by introducing Event #5 – $100,000 No-Limit High Roller and Event #77 – $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller.

With the number of players focused on high rollers in recent years, this addition is a good move by the WSOP.

The big question is around the position of the $100k on the tournament calendar.

It would seem to make more sense to schedule it towards the end of the series when more players are in town because of the Main Event, when the $50k and the Big One for One Drop are being played, and when players with new windfalls from earlier wins might want to take a shot.

Will a high roller at the beginning of the series attract a substantial number of players? Only time will tell.

Other new events

Last year, the WSOP hosted a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty that attracted to 1,868 players. It’s no secret, players love bounty tournaments because they play fast and don’t last for days on end.

This year, the WSOP is replacing the popular $1,000 buy-in with Event #2 – $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty.

While professionals tend to prefer turbo tournaments, amateurs flock to tournaments with larger than normal starting stacks that tend to provide more play. And to answer that call, The WSOP added Event #34 – $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold’em.

In contrast, the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty is scheduled for one day, while the $1,000 Double Stack is scheduled for six.

The Closer

It’s no surprise that the WSOP loves to put a good spin on a tournament to help attract more amateur players to the game. And of course, where the amateurs go, the pros will follow.

Joining The Colossus, The Millionaire Maker and The Giant is this year’s Event #75 – $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold’em $1 Million Guaranteed. It’s appropriately named as it will be one of the last of 78 bracelets awarded in Vegas over the summer.

There is no doubt the poker playing public loves its gimmicks, huge prize pools, and large stacks. It seems the WSOP has been listening by adding events to the schedule that will not only draw new players to the Rio this summer but also keep them playing at the Rio.

While not only good for the players, by giving them more options and choices, its surely will be good for the WSOP’s bottom line.

You can view the complete 2018 World Series of Poker tournament schedule online at wsop.com.

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