For the second time in two weeks, a Colorado sports betting operator has announced they will be leaving the state.
On Wednesday, Super Group Limited said it will cease offering Betway, its online sportsbook, in Colorado and eight other states where itâs licensed. However, the company will continue to operate online casino gaming in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Neal Menashe, Super Groupâs CEO, said in a statement that the iGaming apps produce the âvast majorityâ of the companyâs revenues, which is why they will remain active.
âAs a global business, we constantly evaluate the optimal use of our resources across all markets in which we operate,â Menashe said. âWe have recently concluded an extensive review of our U.S. operations and, at present, we do not see a long-term path to profitability for the sportsbook product.â
Menashe did not rule out a future U.S. expansion âif the right investment or strategic opportunitiesâ present themselves.
More information about Betwayâs withdrawal will become available next month when Super Group holds its quarterly earnings call with analysts.
Tipico Shut Down Last Month
Once Betway goes offline, Colorado sports betting will be down to 18 operators. Thatâs because Tipico exited the state late last month after MGM Resorts International purchased the companyâs U.S. assets and operations.
Although the deal is not expected to be finalized until later this summer, Tipico officially shut down its sites in four states on June 26, two days after news of the sale to MGM became public.
According to a statement on its website, Tipico said outstanding bets due to be graded in the next few weeks would settle as usual and that it would contact bettors who had longer-range futures wagers with information on how those would be settled.
âWe encourage you to log in and withdraw any excess funds if you would like to bet elsewhere or cash out open bets,â Tipico said.
Super Group is located in Guernsey, a British crown dependency island in the English Channel. Tipico is headquartered in Malta. They are the latest European operators that have decided to scale back drastically or eliminate entirely their American operations. Executives with Kindred Group have said they expect to end its Unibet sports betting app by the end of this month in five U.S. states and Ontario.
Earlier this year, 888 Holdings (now known as Evoke) announced it would sell its U.S. assets to Hard Rock Digital. That includes the SI Sportsbook, which remains active in Colorado for the time being.
Smaller Operators Jumping Ship
Itâs not just a European trend, either. Within the past year, WynnBET went offline in several of its states, including Colorado, and earlier this week, Sahara Bets stopped taking wagers in Arizona, the lone state where it operated.
These sports betting operators and others that went offline in recent years found it tough to establish a foothold in a U.S. market that is dominated primarily by FanDuel Sportsbook Colorado and DraftKings. In most states, those two account for the majority of wagers and revenues, with remaining operators fighting with others for what amounts to 20% to 30% of the market. Even then, there are operators like ESPN Bet, BetMGM, Caesars, bet365 and Fanatics that have invested substantially more in marketing their products. As a result, those five have set themselves above the rest in forming a middle-tier of U.S. sportsbooks.
Colorado does not publish sports betting handle or revenue data at the operator level. Ohio, where both Betway and Tipico were also licensed, does. The results show those two companies were among the smallest operators in terms of market share in the fourth largest sports betting state nationally.
Through the first five months this year, Betwayâs Ohio handle exceeded $1 million only one time. Tipicoâs handles ranged from $4.1 million to $10.2 million, but those amounts never represented more than 1.3% of the handle for any month.
How Both Tried To Establish A U.S. Presence
Neither Betway nor Tipico left the U.S. market without trying to develop exposure to a large audience.
Betway tried to establish a presence by signing a major endorsement deal with the NHL. The bookâs on-ice signage was conspicuous during hockey games, including those at Denverâs Ball Arena, home to the Colorado Avalanche. However, Betway was unable to leverage that exposure for market share.
Tipico, too, sought to enter the U.S. in a big way. It secured a deal with Gannett, the top news publisher in America, but that deal ended prematurely. The company also has opened a tech hub in Denver, where it initially planned to employ more than 400 people and received economic development tax incentives from the state. It is uncertain what will happen to that facility once the MGM deal is finalized.
USA Today photo by Logan Newell.
