BetMGM is looking to improve its fortunes in Pennsylvania, and as part of an overall suite of plans to do so, their partners, Entain, has signed a deal with Angstrom Sports, which they feel will aid their efforts due to increased use of the best sports modeling and forecasting analytics that this deal brings them.
The competition in Pennsylvania is strong, both in online casino and sports betting fields, and any efforts that BetMGM can make in order to keep a strong share of the market will be grabbed with both hands.
In terms of PA online casinos, it’s notoriously tricky to ascertain which brands are leading the pack, this is because the PGCB (Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board) breaks down revenue results by license, and this makes it trickier to track, but there’s no doubt that DraftKings is BetMGM’s main competitor in the region.
BetMGM Chief Executive Officer Bill Hornbuckle believes such a move will only aid their progress in the region, stating; “I think the moves that we’re now making with Entain, our partner, and the moves we’re going to make with Angstrom, as an onboarded partner for BetMGM, will get us to a place where we’ll be back in that game in a meaningful way and hopefully begin to gain some share back.”
The need to cross-sell to make the most of those users who migrate between casino and sports betting action is a key way to help boost their numbers, especially as they seek to make up any potential ground lost to DraftKings, Hornbuckle adding;
“On the casino side, it’s simply sports betters. About 30% of them migrate over to the casino. If you leave that in the equation, it’s part of the reason iGaming has come down a couple of points, but we continue to dominate. We’re not naive that they’re not coming after us in that forum.”
The acquisition of Angstrom didn’t come cheaply; in fact, it cost BetMGM $266 million, but it’s a deal that will pay off, Hornbuckle explained; “The opportunity with Angstrom will drive more product, more parlay, more frequency and recency around bets in-game and otherwise,”
“And those are big margin businesses. That’s the biggest delta between (BetMGM and leading competitors): The product offering and, more importantly, the type of products that potentially someone like a FanDuel or DraftKings will offer versus the velocity of things that we offer. We’re simply going to have more high-margin bets available for customers as we deploy Angstrom.”
Others within BetMGM are equally confident of a change in fortunes, with MGM Resorts CFO Jonathan Halkyard commenting;
“Lower customer acquisition costs, higher margin on online sports betting, increased play by our loyal known customers — and then all of our pre-2023 markets (are) now contribution positive,”
“All those things bode very well for improving profitability in the future.”
Only time will tell if such moves pay off, but the future prospects of BetMGM have certainly not been harmed by such positive moves by the company.