SBJ Betting: TGL gets into the swing of things

It was at a May meeting of the notoriously persnickety Massachusetts Gaming Commission that one of the regulators asked the question that ended up derailing -- at least temporarily -- BetMGM’s request to add bets on the events of the TGL golf startup.

“I like the league. I like what they’re proposing,” Commissioner Brad Hill said of the  venture founded by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and former NBC Sports executive Mike McCarley . “But I’m trying to understand. We’re basically betting on an electronic game, are we not? ... Am I wrong in thinking this is like e-gaming?"

Because Massachusetts has not yet crafted regulations around esports betting, the commission tabled the request, asking staff to dive deeper into the question of whether the league -- which has PGA Tour players hitting their tee and approach shots into a simulator screen -- should be categorized as golf, or a video game.

When they came back a month later with the opinion that it should be treated as golf, or a subset of it, Hill said he was satisfied. But another commissioner, Eileen O’Brien, raised an additional concern: That regardless of how it was categorized, the additional layer of a simulator opened up the possibility that a “bad actor” might manipulate the equipment as part of a match-fixing scheme.

Pointing out that the league wasn’t scheduled to put on its first event until January, O’Brien suggested they get more information about how the TGL will protect against that before approving bets on it.

That’s where the matter stands in the commonwealth today: on pause, albeit with most commissioners seemingly ready to approve it once they get their tech questions answered. In most other jurisdictions, the blessing has come more readily. TGL has been approved for wagering in 17 of the 30 states that permit online sports betting, along with Nebraska, New Mexico and Wisconsin, which have retail sportsbooks. It also has been cleared in Puerto Rico and north of the border in Ontario.

Thanks to an alliance with the PGA Tour, a media deal with ESPN and an investor roster that includes well-known athletes and prominent pro team owners, TGL comes before regulators with a far more established pedigree than many of the outfits that already have been approved in most states.

Tech focus of TGL means integrity is paramount

At a indoor TGL match, played in a  purpose-built, made-for-TV venue  in West Palm Beach, the only evidence of whether the ball landed in the fairway or a computer-generated pond will be found within a coded stream of data, taken from cameras and sensors.

Spend a few minutes reading the social posts of frustrated bettors and you’ll find no shortage of conspiracy theories. We share space in a society in which some aren’t convinced Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. If you don’t think a bettor on a cold streak is going to chalk it up to a rigged arcade screen, rather than bad luck or poor judgment, you haven’t been paying attention.

This is a point not lost on the TGL’s creators at TMRW Sports Group, or the consultant that is helping them navigate the betting world. “We all know that in betting, data is king,” said Eric Foote, the former PointsBet exec who now operates consultancy Vig Partners. “Without the validity of that data, operators aren’t going to want to hang the markets. And customers aren’t going to want to wager on the sport if there’s inconsistency. So data validity and data consistency are two pillars of our foundation."

TGL’s case is buoyed by some familiar names. Its simulator -- 20x larger than the standard screen found at a driving range or in a PGA Tour player’s home -- is from Full Swing, the PGA Tour’s official licensee in that category. Its ball-tracking technology comes from Toptracer, commonly found at Topgolf facilities.

On the more traditional integrity front, it has hired IC360 (formerly US Integrity) to monitor odds for irregularities and adopted the same player integrity policies as the PGA Tour.

Bringing in the fans

“You can boil that down to two goals: Get more people, and get the people you have to be more involved,” said Jon Kropp, VP/digital media for TMRW Sports. “Betting really checks both boxes. Social media may check one box. Broadcast may check one box. But sports betting checks both boxes. It’s an opportunity to bring new audiences to the game, as well as keep those viewers that are betting viewing longer and engaging with our other platforms more.”

That BetMGM and six other U.S. sportsbooks have sought permission to take bets on TGL events in at least one jurisdiction is an indication that they think bettors may be interested in the new property. Its schedule aligns with a soft spot in the U.S. betting calendar, with events held on Monday and Tuesday nights beginning in January, as the NFL moves into its playoffs.

TGL and ESPN have shown a greater willingness to integrate betting content into their primary telecasts than the PGA Tour has thus far, Foote said. Hard Rock, the only licensed operator in Florida, has moved aggressively to strike deals with teams across the state and is an obvious tie-up for sponsorship at the venue. But TGL will likely look to use the broadcast and other digital assets to attract a broader portfolio of sportsbook sponsors, both in the U.S. and abroad.

The binary nature of TGL’s format also is intriguing from a betting perspective. Events will be match play, with teams of four golfers competing in 3-on-3 and singles. Choosing who will win each head-to-head match, or take the point on a hole, is a simpler proposition than considering odds and following a traditional tour event with players spread across a course.

Foote said TGL and its yet-to-be-announced data distributor will work with sportsbooks to provide odds, as well as a fast data stream for those who prefer to set their own. “Being a golfer and a golf fan and working in the betting and gaming field, it’s a very unique opportunity for operators and customers to engage in betting on golf at a unique time of the year and a different situation,” Foote added. “It’s going to be fun.”

U.K.-based Bet365 will open a U.S. HQ in Denver, with plans to grow staff there from 50 to 300 in the next year and add 800 jobs in the next eight years, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade announced earlier this week.

The announcement comes 10 weeks after Bet365 launched in its 11th state, Pennsylvania, where it immediately joined a tight four-horse race for the No. 3 slot in handle share behind FanDuel and DraftKings. Licensed in Pennsylvania through Presque Isla Downs in Erie, Bet365 posted $28.1 million in handle in August, good for a 6% share, one point behind third-place BetMGM and one ahead of ESPNBet, Fanatics and Bet Rivers.

That’s about where Bet365 is running in seven states in which regulators release results from individual sportsbooks.

Bet365 grew its share of handle in Ohio to 11% in August, well ahead of fourth-place BetMGM’s 7%. It also was at 11% and in third place in Kentucky in June, the most recent month for which that state has reported results. Bet365 ranked fifth with 5% in both Indiana and Iowa in August, and fifth at 4% in Arizona in June.

The sportsbook had a 6% online share in New Jersey in August, though that was of revenue, not handle. New Jersey regulators do not report handle by individual sportsbook operators. It trailed FanDuel (40%), DraftKings (26%) and BetMGM (7%).

Bet365 also is available in Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina and Louisiana.

BetMGM has the lone new sponsor execution of the MLB postseason, a twist on the “Hit it Here” promo that rewarded fans when a player hit a sign in the outfield stands.

In this case, BetMGM gets a large logo sign at the back of both bullpens in each ballpark throughout the postseason, giving the brand high visibility when the networks cut to relievers warming up. If a player homers into the bullpen, all BetMGM customers who placed a qualifying prop wager on that player to hit a home run in the game will share in a jackpot of $50,000 in bonus bets.

It didn’t happen in the four ballparks that hosted the Wild Card round. But MGM got plenty of run each time the bullpens got active.

• Penn unveiled rebranded ESPN Bet retail sportsbook locations in Ohio at its Hollywood Casino properties in Columbus and Toledo last weekend, bringing the total to seven. L’Auberge Casino Resort in Lake Charles, La., unveiled its rebrand a week earlier. ESPN Bet sportsbooks conversions have also been done at Hollywood Casino venues (Detroit, Kansas Speedway and Perryville, Md.) and at two Louisiana locations -- L’Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge and Margaritaville Resort in Bossier City. The lone initially planned rebrand remaining is at Plainridge Park harness track near Foxborough, Mass.

• Sports betting will be on the ballot in Missouri on Nov. 5, and while "polls have shown support for sports betting," DraftKings and FanDuel are "nonetheless pumping millions of dollars into an ad campaign in support of the initiative," notes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. By contrast, Caesars, "which operates three casinos in the state, is financing an opposition campaign, saying the tax structure of the initiative won’t result in a windfall of money for education." XL Media on Twitter noted that to date, DraftKings and FanDuel have donated $26.5 million, while Caesars has donated nearly $11 million.

• Sportradar’s Unified Odds Feed will now for the first time include live markets from nVenue, the microbetting odds provider, reports SBJ's Joe Lemire. nVenue uses AI for predictive modeling that helps create in-play wagering opportunities in MLB, the NBA, NFL and NASCAR.

• NBA CMO Tammy Henault tells my colleague Tom Friend that there are "certain audience segments" that the league is really focused on at this point, and one is the "betting audience." 

• BetMGM has a new multiyear deal with GTG Network to deliver customized content and useful betting insights for sports fans, starting with direct-to-consumer content followed by in-app product integrations. BetMGM will use GTG’s content engine to launch the partnership around MLB, the NBA, NFL, NHL, college basketball and college football.

• With the NHL season set to begin, and without a linear TV option for fans to fall back on, the Stars are going all in on streaming and betting to generate significant ad revenue (even without sports betting allowed in Texas), notes SBJ's Alex Silverman.

• Genius Sports named Mark Kropf its new Group CTO. Kropf, who was previously Google Cloud technical director, will work to expand the deployment of GeniusIQ, the next-generation sports data and AI platform which leverages machine learning and generative AI to deliver game analysis and ultra-immersive experiences.