Gambling firms bet on billion dollar market
NEW YORK — Investors and sports betting companies are running up the score when it comes to sports betting, predicting the fast-growing industry will be a $7 billion to $8 billion business in the U.S. within five years.
But not all the many companies flocking to get in on the ground floor will make it, they predict.
Panelists at the NYC Sports Betting Investor Summit said Monday that the industry is growing quickly in this country a year and a half after New Jersey won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling clearing the way for all 50 states to offer legal sports betting.
So far, 14 do, including New Mexico, and many others are considering it.
Investment firm Morgan Stanley
predicts the U.S. market will generate almost $7 billion in revenue by 2025, up from $833 million this year. That’s up from an estimate of $5 billion the company had issued less than a year ago.
That amount would represent less than 20% of the $41.7 billion won by commercial casinos in the U.S. in 2018. Still, it represents a substantial new revenue stream that, for legal operators, did not exist a year and a half ago.
At the investors event sponsored by Morgan Stanley, executives from MGM Resorts, Hard Rock and Mohegan Sun all issued similar predictions in the $6 billion to $8 billion range. And the research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, which tracks sports betting regulation and revenue, said those figures are “very close” to its own estimates of future market size.
Participants at the forum cautioned that while the industry is growing quickly, the high cost of acquiring customers and promoting a new business could lead to some current operators failing.
“It’s war out there,” said Seth Young, chief information officer for PointsBet. “At the end of the day there’s going to be a lot of carcasses out there on the road.”
“It is a growing market here in terms of revenue but it’s a very tough market,” added Scott Butera, president of interacting gaming for MGM Resorts International. “Everybody wants to be here. Ultimately I think we’ll see some shaking out.”
Nonetheless, Butera said he believes U.S. sports betting will exceed even the increased figures cited at Monday’s forum.
“I’ll take the over on $8 billion,” he said.