With six of the nine approved NY Betting apps operators up and running, including Tuesday’s launch of PointsBet, the remaining three (Bally Bet, Resorts World and WynnBET) are awaiting the green light to go live.
Now, one of those three has indicated it isn’t planning to launch until April.
Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim spoke about his company’s plans for an online sportsbook in New York Tuesday in a seven-minute interview with CNBC’s Contessa Brewer.
“New York is an interesting place,” Soo Kim said. “You can literally open an account with one person, open another account with another, get your free promotional money and bet different ways on the same game and you will win on one of them. I don’t know why everyone is not doing that.
“We will launch sometime in April, I think is the plan.”
After Super Bowl Launch OK
“You are going to miss the Super Bowl?” Brewer asked.
“Yes, we are OK with that,” he said. “We have a longer-term plan. Part of this is why maybe our plan is not fully being grasped by the public market. The public market sense is very short-term-oriented. What is going to happen next in earnings, etc.
“We think that the current version of sports betting is not a great business. It’s a fine business, not a great business. We think there will be a wave of consolidation that will rationalize promotions, but more importantly, people will stop competing with just free money, but people will start competing with product.”
Bally’s Chair a Queens Native
Kim is a New Yorker who has been in his current role at Bally’s since 2016. He grew up in Elmhurst, Queens and graduated from Stuyvesant High School and Princeton University.
Based in Rhode Island, Bally’s currently has 14 casinos across 10 states, a racetrack in Colorado (Arapahoe Park in Aurora), as well as off-site betting licenses in 15 states. Bally Interactive operates the company’s online offerings, including its Bally Bet sports betting brand, a fantasy sports site and a free-to-play, business-to-business game provider.
Last year, Bally’s also bought Gamesys Group, an online gaming company based in England, for $2.7 billion.
In its most recent quarter, Bally’s revenue reached $315 billion with a net loss of $14.7 billion.
A Look at Rest of Operators
While it appears Bally’s could make its debut in the mobile New York sports market in April, many others already have started and are thriving.
Numbers for the first nine days of operation show that Caesars Sportsbook New York, FanDuel New York, DraftKings New York and BetRivers New York, the four companies that started on Jan. 8, combined for $603 million in handle.
BetMGM New York launched on Jan. 17 and PointsBet New York took its first bet Jan. 25.
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WynnBET New York, which, according to a New York Post report, is considering selling its sportsbook, has not begun to operate. The same is true for Resorts World New York. The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) has said other operators would enter the field on a rolling basis.
For Bally’s, that appears to be a few months away.
