New York Set To Add BetMGM Sportsbook On Monday
Update: BetMGM is now live. More here.
BetMGM will launch as the fifth online New York sports betting operator Monday morning, the company announced early Friday.
The post-weekend launch means BetMGM will be live for NFL betting online on the final game of Wild Card Weekend when the Arizona Cardinals plays the Los Angeles Rams Monday night.
“With today’s monumental news, we’ll now be able to fully activate our relationships with MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino and Madison Square Garden. We look forward to offering customers in New York unique experiences that they can’t access on any other platform,” said BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt.
BetMGM will have some work to do catching up to the other four NY sportsbook apps that are already live.
- BetRivers
- Caesars Sportsbook
- DraftKings Sportsbook
- FanDuel Sportsbook
Another aggressive New York promo incoming
BetMGM is ready to fight for market share with a number of promos at launch:
- Risk-free first bet up to $1,000
- Bet $10, win $200 on the NFL Wild Card Round
- Wager $10, get $200 on the NHL’s Rangers
- Bet $10, get $200 on the NBA’s Knicks
That $1,000 promo falls in line with what DraftKings and FanDuel have offered so far. Caesars led everyone at launch with $3,300 in promos. BetRivers launched with a $250 promo, which might not be as attractive but is definitely more sustainable given the 51% tax on sports betting revenue and no promo write-offs allowed.
Regulus Partners said the opening promotional aggressiveness is enough competition for “mutually assured destruction.”
Which New York sports betting operators are still waiting?
There will be four sportsbooks waiting on New York’s sidelines when BetMGM goes live Monday:
- Bally Bet
- PointsBet
- Resorts World
- WynnBET
The only operator to provide an update so far is PointsBet, which said it should launch by the end of the month.
Along with worrying about being live in time for Super Bowl betting, the remaining operators need to think about how they will make up market share after their delays. They’ve missed plenty of action already with 17.2 million geolocation pings over opening weekend alone.
The Virginia sports betting market showed how important being a first mover is – FanDuel, which had a four-day lead over other operators, took 42.7% of all handle from the market’s mid-January launch through the end of November.
Vince Gennaro, associate dean of the NYU School of Professional Studies Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport, expects the first four operators to take the majority of the market:
“I think those will gain the lion’s share of the market. … I wouldn’t be surprised if the four [originally launching operators] get into that realm of 70-80 percent of the market even nine months out.”