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SportsTranscript
00:00Okay, so now let's get to the business of sports betting.
00:05This is what we always lean on you for here, Mike.
00:06I saw this again on social media, prize picks, who had an opportunity a few months ago, I
00:12thought, to potentially get out of the game with all of this peer-to-peer stuff going
00:17on in some of these states saying, hey, look, you've got to get out of this state and that
00:20state.
00:21An interesting time to sell if you are prize picks.
00:24I don't know what this really means and if this will happen, but wouldn't this be a case
00:29of sort of selling low, if that's the case, or do they fear that there just may not be
00:33a business for them in the future?
00:36Yeah, Craig, I think that's a great point.
00:39We'll see.
00:40Right now it is all speculation, Bloomberg reporting that prize picks is exploring mergers
00:45and acquisitions.
00:46It doesn't seem like they want to sell, according to Bloomberg.
00:49And that makes a lot of sense, Craig, if you talk to industry sources in the financial
00:53industry in terms of sports books, they'll tell you, you know, prize picks is profitable.
00:57Prize picks has a massive customer database.
00:59Those are probably their two biggest assets.
01:01They've obviously just opened a huge 33,000-square-foot headquarters in Atlanta.
01:06So none of that really leads you to believe that they're going to sell.
01:09Perhaps they do, and this comes out of left field, so we'll see.
01:11But certainly in, you know, busy time in M&A, we've seen IGT, we've seen Bally's, we've
01:17seen, you know, Flutter, Boyd, ESPN, that rumor out there.
01:21Whether any of this stuff comes to fruition, we'll see.
01:24As you alluded to, prize picks has faced a lot of uproar from various jurisdictions
01:29in terms of offering what's deemed illegal against the house fantasy contests, most notably
01:35in Florida and New York.
01:36New York had to pay a $15 million settlement.
01:39We'll see with California.
01:40The attorney general has to decide whether this is legal or not.
01:45And if it isn't, then, you know, again, that's another avenue they don't have.
01:48Right now they have a big advantage, you know, I mean, to play the long game, if they acquire
01:52a small sports book, Greg, they could potentially get California and Texas, you hope, in like
01:56four to six years, if not earlier.
01:59And you know, they would have a massive database of players already there to be able to send,
02:04you know, promotions, download the, you know, already have the fantasy app downloaded and
02:08can transition to sports betting, because probably a lot of those customers are sports
02:11betting customers, not necessarily iGaming.
02:14They had this huge advantage.
02:15They have a, you know, a really strong Discord channel, according to people in the industry
02:18that a lot of bettors like to go to, even a lot of bettors that are successful.
02:22So, you know, this is a company that has made waves, has made money, FanDuel and DraftKings
02:26don't want them around, you know, and obviously have argued properly that what they're doing
02:30in terms of against the house is illegal, as regulators have agreed with them.
02:34And so we'll see where this goes, whether or not they are able to acquire a sports book
02:38or, you know, somebody comes out of nowhere and acquires them, which, again, you would
02:42get the database, you would have a profitable company that, again, just built the headquarters,
02:46which leads you to believe that's not the case.
02:48But that's all speculation on my part to suggest that they're not going to be sold.
02:53And that's what Bloomberg says as well.
02:54And it, you know, in this scenario feels like more likely that they would acquire a smaller
02:57sports book and try to go that direction, really pivot to that regulated marketplace
03:02and potentially ultimately be able to use those advantages they've gained through the
03:05databases in California and Texas to expand operations there when those states legalize.