SBJ Betting: Steve Bornstein sees Genius as more than sportsbook data

Bornstein hit on a number of topics, including:

On the place of game and event telecasts tailored to a sports betting audience, commonly known as BetCasts :

“Multicasting is really interesting. But at the end of the day, it’s not so much multicasting as personalizing the cast. You don’t really need eight choices. You just need the one you’re interested in. As we become smarter and deploy AI better, we’re going to find out that your feed may be different from mine on the same game, but essentially, it’s the same feed -- just enhanced and augmented for me. That’s what I get excited about with Genius Sports. Yes, we’re providing data and information that helps people bet on the game, but that to me is not particularly an original service. What’s really engaging to me is the new stats and data that come out of it.”

On the likelihood of the NFL adapting its Red Zone Channel, or launching a new betting-focused feed, as part of the "Sunday Ticket" package :

“It makes perfect sense. Whether that’s the next thing that happens or one of the things that’s going to happen, I can’t really predict. But to me, the NFL is at the cutting edge of this, and they have retained the rights they need to exploit. 

“Whether it’s the next big thing on 'Sunday Ticket,' I don’t know. This year was a new distributor [in YouTube TV], and they were making sure the plumbing worked. They needed to deliver the game in a compelling fashion, and they achieved that. I know that if I were sitting in that chair where I would be driving that. [A betting-focused 'Sunday Ticket' channel] would be high on my list. The multicast is easy to talk about, but harder to execute. Next year’s iteration of 'Sunday Ticket' is going to be significantly more sophisticated. What they need to do, ultimately, is increase engagement and get more people to want to watch games on their platform. There’s a big history of iteration in 'Sunday Ticket' -- Red Zone Channel being the most significant. So it’s a logical place to try new things and see what works and doesn’t work.”

On Genius’ efforts to diversify beyond its roots distributing streaming data to sportsbooks :

“If you think about [Genius primarily as a data provider for sportsbooks], you’re going to limit the potential of where it goes. You have to think about it as applying AI and big data to sports consumption. I don’t know when, but at some point, gambling will be a revenue contributor -- but not the most important revenue contributor -- to what Genius is doing. That’s where this company can go and wants to go, and how I think about this company.

“Steve Jobs figured this out. You’ve got to give the consumer something to use. You can’t wait for them to tell you what they want. I’m not sure you picked up your little [flip] phone and said, 'I want a camera in it.' But Apple decided that’s what you wanted and now it’s part-and-parcel of your experience. That’s where I see us going with Genius and this data. If you look at it as just a tool for gambling, you are seeing the tip of the iceberg as opposed to the whole iceberg, which is that this is a whole new set of data rights that can be shared with the consumer and enjoyed by the consumer. That to me is where IP holders should get pretty excited.”

This week brought the full, merciful, inevitable overhaul of what was the most convoluted regulatory structure in U.S. sports betting -- a model that gave exclusive rights to mobile wagering in D.C. to lottery operator Intralot -- while walling the leading commercial operators off in retail operations in stadiums and arenas.

It took only one month of mobile operation by FanDuel for D.C. leaders to realize the cost of that blunder. Operating in place of Intralot beginning in April, FanDuel promptly obliterated D.C. handle records , paving the way for the district to open the door to others. Wednesday brought the launch of Caesars and BetMGM , with DraftKings hinting that it soon will follow. 

There’s no telling how much revenue commercial sportsbooks in D.C. could have generated had they been able to seize the first-mover advantage of launching ahead of neighbors Virginia and Maryland, where many who work in D.C. reside. 

It would have been far more than Intralot brought in.  

With reports in from gambling regulators in 21 of the 33 trackable legalized jurisdictions, June is shaping up as expected, down 17% compared to last month in like states as the sports calendar slimmed heading into summer. Last year, June handle dropped 19% compared to May. 

The year-on-year story also is playing out as it has through this year, with June pacing 20% ahead of the same month in 2023. May is on track to be 27% higher than the same month last year in states that were open for at least a year. April was 27% better than the previous April.

• Fresh off reports that it will quadruple its take from media rights in a deal agreed to earlier this week, the WNBA added DraftKings as an official sportsbook sponsor, joining FanDuel in a category split that mirrors the NBA’s.

• The Southern Ute Indian Tribe is suing Gov. Jared Polis and the director of the Colorado Division of Gaming, Christopher Schroder, "saying the administration is illegally freezing tribes out of the online sports betting market, in part, to maximize state tax collections," notes the Colorado Sun.

• OneTeam Partners is seeking a general partner to help launch a $75 million fund that will “invest in growth stage and opportunistic early-stage companies that have the potential to change the athlete paradigm,” according to an investor deck prepared by OneTeam examined by SBJ's Ben Fischer and Chris Smith. The document highlights investment opportunities in video games, sports betting, collectibles, human performance and emerging leagues.

• Sportradar agreed to a three-year extension of both its betting data rights deal and integrity partnership with UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, notes SBJ's Rob Schaefer.

• Former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo’s online sportsbook SaharaBets is “halting operations and no longer accepting bets,” according to the Arizona Republic.