Massachusetts has just made a step in the right direction for sports betting with the announcement that the Encore Boston Harbor Casino has been given approval for the first sports betting license. The vote was approved last Thursday by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission after deferring a few other votes such as Plainridge Park Casino due to their involvement with Dave Portnoy. Though it was a unanimous decision by commission, Encore will have to wait just a little bit longer to officially start accepting bets as the Massachusetts sports betting launch is slated for late January 2023. Encore Casino has said as well as having a sportsbook within their casino, they will also place kiosks in their parking lots to allow for ease of access.

Illinois has just released their revenue report for October showing record breaking revenue for the state. The official numbers released by the Illinois Gaming Board show that the licensed sportsbooks recorded revenue of over $102 million with bettors placing over $1 billion in bets during the month. This makes Illinois the fourth state in the U.S. to surpass the $1 billion handle mark after New York, New Jersey, and Nevada. Of the bets placed the NFL was the most popular, pulling in $358 million. Basketball trailed behind with $114 million and tennis came in third with $85 million. Since the launch of sports betting the 12 official operators have earned over $190 million in tax revenue and government officials expect that these numbers will only […]

In recent news China has announced they will begin cutting back on some of their Covid-19 policies after public anger on a zero-tolerance method which has been isolating the country for the past few years. The new initiative will stop mandatory testing for public transport and public areas as well as pushing for vaccinations for elderly and vulnerable citizens. One ETF involved in these markets is the iBET Sports Betting and Gaming ETF (IBET) which follows many companies in the region including Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN). IBET has been up almost 10% in the past month. China has one of if not the largest casino markets in the world and the cutbacks will help them to grow back to their […]