FIRST LOOK: William Hill Sportsbook at Capital One Arena, the first sportsbook in a US based stadium or arena, opens at noon pic.twitter.com/NKFR2bi1lu— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 26, 2021
Why am I posting this here? Because its the first legal sports betting facility to be opened inside of or attached to a professional sports arena in the US. And most likely the first of many, many more to be opened by year's end (I've heard rumors we'll have one at PNC Arena in Raleigh before too long). This is going to make it easy for fans to bet before and during games, potentially even head to the sportsbook during breaks in play to make bets.
What are your thoughts? Excited to see this happen? Are you likely to partake? Would you like to see this spread to college sports, and possibly have a similar venue open in Blacksburg, if not somewhere in the athletic complex between Cassell and Lane?
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MGM has partnered with the Nationals and is opening their sportsbook there tentatively this summer. I suspect we'll see more of this happening, especially as more states (i.e. Virginia) have started to legalize online sports betting, as well as brick-and-mortar gambling as well.
I think the spread to college sports venues will be much slower, if at all. From my experience, very few sportsbooks offer comprehensive sports betting at the college level. Mainly because the sheer amount of teams in college sports tend to restrict the size of the betting markets. A typical NFL or NBA game has hundreds of wagers available - dozens of different point spreads, O/U totals, as well as a ridiculous number of prop bets on particular players to score so many points/TDs/receptions/assists/etc. For college, you get a point spread and O/U, and possibly the ability to buy a couple of points in either direction on both. Not even sure you can bet on player stats for college sports - sounds like something the NCAA would have an issue with.
Also, Virginia prohibits betting on college sports involving a team from the state and I don't see that law changing. I suspect other states have similar laws, so that's a big dampening effect if you're in Lane Stadium (or any other stadium) and you can't put money down on the home team.
I'm also curious if sportsbooks will even spread to professional football stadiums, let alone college stadiums. Professional basketball and baseball have much longer seasons (82, and 162 games, respectively), so those stadiums are in use for 40 or 80 days out of the year, excluding preseason and playoffs. Capital One is also one of roughly a dozen shared basketball/hockey stadiums, so add in the home games for an 82-game hockey season. I can't see the cost-benefit analysis working out for opening a sportsbook in a venue that's in use 10 times a year, including the preseason. Drop that to 7 or 8 games for the college football season, and you're fighting an uphill battle since football is king in the college landscape.
NJ has that law too- you can't bet on Rutgers, etc there. There already is a sports book/window in Raiders stadium in Vegas, it was just closed last year due to covid.
I can see Raiders stadium being the exception because it's in Vegas and basically right off the strip. Maybe a couple of other places that already have a gambling presence in the immediate vicinity (e.g. Detroit, Philly, NOLA, etc).
What's the advantage here over online betting? Is there something that B&M betting parlors can offer that online can't (from a legal/betting standpoint). Is it just the sense of doing something in person and socially with others?
Not sure it's an advantage per se, but if you have to actually go to the trouble of betting in person (i.e. hauling your ass out of your house and going somewhere to place the bet) you're likely to bet less often (and hence lose less) than just doing it online. I restrict my betting to physically going to Vegas, though it could be argued that a trip there is a small fortune in and of itself.
It's just the same psychology that makes you buy a T-shirt from the merchandise shop at the stadium, as opposed to buying the same shirt online.
Also, people that are drinking tend to gamble more (hence why it's common in Las Vegas for a casino to offer free drinks to people that are actively gambling).
I'm sure the combination of accessibility and some liquid courage will get new customers that normally wouldn't bet at all. And then I'm sure some number of those will also start betting online once they get a taste of it.
If you live in Maryland, the advantage is being able to place a legal bet. Maryland still has it's head up it's ass, so it's go to WV, Del, or DC if you want to bet.
They finally just passed a bill legalizing sports betting last month. Don't think anything is active yet, in-person or online, but the casino at Maryland Live has already remodeled for a sports bar that also includes a FanDuel sportsbook.
I found it absolutely insane that I could be on-property in National Harbor at the MGM casino and not place a bet, but drive across the bridge and use their online sports book in VA.
Well, I tried online betting for March Madness. SusieCue and I set up an account on Fan Duel. The account was initially blocked because we had a health privacy app that blocked location to protect our PHI during virtual healthcare visits. We deleted the app, set up the account with a whopping $300, and then bet $50 for the first day of March Madness.
After making the initial bets, Fan Duel locked the account. They asked us to provide documentation, which Susan and I provided (which even included photographs of us, other identification, etc.) After we submitted it, radio silence. No response to email, and they do not answer phones. We got ripped off for our remaining $250.
The house always wins, but damn that's shitty customer service.
The make shift one was a fucking disaster. Heavily armed cops, dumb asses in front of you that don't know how to bet, rude ass tellers. Hopefully this is one where normal humans will want to go to.
Well DC so not too many normal people around...
Huge fan of legalized gambling.
Doubt it will happen. Most of the online gaming services (eg; FanDuel) won't let you gamble on in-state college sports. So if you're in the state of Denver, you cannot place a bet on Colorado football.