Sports Betting In 2023: Hello ESPN BET, Fanatics, And Taylor Swift

It was — as always — quite a year in the world of sports betting. And while we’re not going to cover the whole schmear here today, let us take a moment to look back on the good, the bad, and the +EV of the year that was …

Up, up and away!

Ohio sports betting went live at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, and after that, numerous other states either passed legislation paving the way for online sports betting apps (North Carolina, Vermont) or saw sports betting sites launch (Maine, Massachusetts, Kentucky).

Even Florida got in on the action, with Hard Rock Bet going live (again), and Puerto Rico –- not a state, but close enough –- launching over the summer.

Oh, and Nebraska — located somewhere between New York and California –- got retail sports betting.

This brings the total number of states that are either live or waiting to go live to 35 (37 with D.C. and Puerto Rico.)

Down, down, and further down

Alas, California and Texas — combined population of nearly 70 million, or some 21% of the nation — continue to be sports betting deserts.

In 2023, a new California initiative popped up. And while it’s not dead yet, it ain’t exactly live and kicking either. In short: Not gonna happen, at least not now.

As for Texas? Well, the legislature meets every other year, and no progress was made this year, so … blech. But while nothing happened in Austin, movement in Dallas certainly has tongues wagging, as Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is in the process of selling the team to the Adelson family, they of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. The family also recently purchased 260 acres of land in Irving. This feels like a smoke and fire situation (hopefully) when it comes to future gambling news out of the Lonestar State.

ESPN BET? Here. Fanatics? Here.

The two biggest online sportsbook launches since — well, since online sportsbooks first launched — happened in 2023.

Fanatics came first, fully launching in four states in mid-August, before slowly rolling out to the other states where it is licensed.

And while in any other year this would have been the biggest launch news, the 800-pound gorilla — well, 800-pound mouse — decided to finally dip its toes in the sportsbook waters.

Disney’s ESPN inked a deal with PENN Entertainment to launch ESPN BET, replacing PENN’s Barstool-branded sportsbook.

The deal was signed in August, and ESPN BET went live in mid-November.

Wait, how much?

New York became the first state in the post-PASPA era to hit $2 billion in one month’s worth of sports betting handle.

November was the magical month for this number to be surpassed, and who knows where the ceiling is going forward.

For those keeping score at home, it was as if every single adult in New York put down $125 for the month. 

Back to Florida for a moment

Remember in that first blurb up there we mentioned how Florida went live (again)? Yeah, well that might rank as the most surprising sports betting story of the year. 

The Seminole tribe decided it wasn’t going to wait for the courts, and announced it would be launching in-person sports betting (and craps and roulette) at the tribe’s Florida properties. 

No one — (insert classic Valley Girl voice) like, literally no one — thought they’d dare roll out their online product through Hard Rock Bet with all kinds of legal proceedings still to be settled.

But they did, catching everyone off guard. 

And now? The Seminoles have — and will continue to have, for the foreseeable future — sports betting in the third-largest state in America all to themselves.

OMG it’s Taylor Swift

Listen, it’s Tay-Tay’s world and we’re just living in it. The Wall Street Journal estimated her Eras tour added $5.7 billion(!) to the nation’s economy in 2023. (For comparison purposes: You didn’t add $5.7 billion to the nation’s economy in 2023.)

And Swift’s touch extended to the sports betting world once it became known she and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce were dating.

Dig it: The week after it became a known thing in Week 4, prop bets on Kelce soared. BetMGM reported seven times the volume. At DraftKings, Kelce props were twice the market of the first three weeks combined. FanDuel said Kelce props made up 20% of all bets on the Chiefs game.

Can you imagine if they have a kid together? 

Hack attack!

A Wisconsin teenager was charged with hacking into DraftKings and accessing over 60,000 accounts, stealing over $600,000.

Joseph Garrison, 18, eventually pled guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

Unfortunately, he did not cash out my 40-to-1 Dak Prescott for MVP ticket, but he did raise awareness about cybercrime in the sports betting industry. At least for a few minutes, before everyone just decided to keep their password “football.”

Dumb and dumber

Of all the sports betting scandals in 2023 — and there were a few — the dumbest has to belong to former Alabama head baseball coach Brad Bohannon and his alleged partner in crime, Bert Neff Jr.

To quickly sum up what has been reported: Neff was on a call with Bohannon before Alabama’s game against top-ranked LSU in April and learned that Alabama’s top starting pitcher, Luke Holman, would be scratched.

So Neff attempted to get a bet for more than $100,000 down on LSU, in person, at BetMGM’s sportsbook at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Complicating matters for Neff was his loud retelling of his inside information tale inside the sportsbook.

Moral of the story: Don’t be a schmuck.

Of course, this wasn’t the only college betting scandal this year. University of Iowa and Iowa State players got caught up in the NCAA’s maw, with dozens of athletes accused of betting on sports. Plea deals continue to pour in, and the NCAA (finally) decided to update its archaic rules concerning sports betting.

Bet here, don’t bet there

Location is everything, or was, in an NFL investigation involving a quartet of Detroit Lions players, including wideout Jameson Williams. They all received punishment from the league offices because they placed wagers on non-NFL games, but placed them at a team facility.

Yes, the bets were legal, but where they placed them ran afoul of league rules.

Thankfully, the NFL has since updated its gambling policy, but come on — talk about ticky-tack stuff. Boo, NFL.

Don’t bet on your team

Indianapolis Colts defensive back Isaiah Rodgers Jr. was suspended indefinitely for not only making bets inside a team facility, but making bets on the Colts (face-palm emoji). Rodgers was immediately waived by the Colts.

He wasn’t the only NFL’er to bet on the NFL: Rashod Berry and Demetrius Taylor got the same suspensions.

Note to pro athletes: How about not betting with your outsized paychecks, m’kay?

Foxy notsy

FOX Bet seemed like a sure thing. Had the FOX name, plus the NFL television contract, plus a team of celebrities. 

Alas, after a less than five-year run — and never making it out of New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Colorado — the plug was pulled. There were certainly some boardroom shenanigans going on that resulted in the end of FOX BET — namely, Stars Group, FOX Bet’s original corporate daddy, was bought by Paddy Power-Betfair, which then became Flutter. And since FanDuel was already kicking it, it was decided to take FOX Bet out behind the toolshed. 

FOX Bet was predeceased by Churchill Downs’s TwinSpires, Fubo, and MaximBet, with Unibet now placed on life support.