No information divulged regarding Spectrum's New York State gaming study, mobile progress stagnant.
Mobile sports betting's future in New York's bustling market hung in the balance early Wednesday, as lawmakers in the Empire State could not hammer out a state budget prior to the midnight deadline.
By Wednesday afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo was delivering his daily COVID-19 updates from the State Capitol in Albany, while lawmakers were working overtime to pass a timely budget. Meanwhile, Spectrum Gaming Group was set to submit a closely followed gaming market study to the New York State Gaming Commission, on schedule for Wednesday's deadline, five months after securing the bid to conduct the comprehensive study.
Despite apparent progress as negotiations stretched into the wee hours of Wednesday morning, it's highly improbable that mobile sports betting will make its way into the state budget for the second time in a row. The public will have to wait a few more weeks for Spectrum's insights on the potential for mobile betting in New York. The final report is scheduled for June 1.
"There will be no release of the findings in the Draft Report," New York State Gaming Commission spokesperson Brad Maione wrote in an email to Sports Handle.
Controversy surrounding mobile sports betting
The commission declined to comment further on the mobile sports betting findings in the draft.
For years, New York has been under scrutiny for its failure to legalize online sports gambling. A last-ditch effort to bring mobile sports betting to New York came up short in June 2020, when the state assembly refused to bring a vote on a bill that had passed overwhelmingly in the Senate.
Cuomo has consistently maintained that a constitutional amendment is required to legalize the activity. The path requires a time-consuming process that could take at least 36 months, as per state law. A constitutional amendment must be approved by two consecutive sessions of the state legislature before it appears on a statewide referendum the following year.
Online sports betting received scant mention in a 157-page Request For Proposals (RFP) issued by the gaming commission in September 2021. Two months later, Spectrum Gaming was awarded the gaming market study, beating out two others.
Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr., chair of the Senate's Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee, has been on a mission to find a legal avenue for mobile sports gambling in New York without resorting to a constitutional amendment. As New York leaders grapple with reaching a consensus, their neighbors in New Jersey have built one of the nation's most thriving online sports betting markets. Three of New York's six border states – New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island – have legal sports betting, and lawmakers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont have been actively discussing it. Meanwhile, sports betting legislation in Massachusetts has advanced steadily, with lawmakers evaluating both constitutional and regulatory frameworks for a broader rollout.
Last year, four upstate New York casinos began offering sports betting under current law. At present, every casino in the nation is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Top sportsbooks are offering mobile wagering during the shutdown, but betting options have been restricted to niche sports such as table tennis, sumo wrestling, and Australian Rules Football, among others.
Role of Spectrum Gaming Group
Spectrum Gaming Group is a non-partisan consulting firm specializing in the economics, regulation, and policy of legal gambling worldwide. Spectrum Gaming Sports Group provides a range of sports betting services, including market projections, public policy advisory, consulting on land-based and online sportsbook operations, technology requirements, and RFP development for prospective states.
Prior to the launch of sports betting in Rhode Island, Spectrum wrote an RFP for the Rhode Island Lottery, outlining the qualifications for the state's sports betting service provider. Rhode Island added mobile sports betting in August 2019, nine months after becoming the eighth U.S. state to accept legalized sports bets in the wake of the Supreme Court's historic PASPA decision.
Spectrum also published a 50-page report on the prospects of sports betting in the District of Columbia in December 2018. Titled "Sports Betting in District of Columbia: Analysis and Business Case of the Economic Impact of Regulating and Operating Sports Betting through the DC Lottery," the report was submitted to the District's Office of the Chief Financial Officer a few days after the D.C. Council legalized sports betting.
For the New York study, Spectrum could provide insights on how the introduction of mobile betting may bring in a wave of new players, boosting economic activity. For the D.C. study, Spectrum determined that an estimated "65% of total sports betting gross gaming revenue" would be derived from a new mobile/digital channel, a level the advisory group found to be "consistent with developed sports betting markets elsewhere." Spectrum dedicated a considerable section in the report to the implications of mobile betting on new player development.
Tapping into the right demographic via a mobile platform could be an ideal channel to cultivate new players. Research suggests that younger, well-educated, urban, and high-income groups – all typically found in New York – exhibit the highest ownership and usage patterns of smartphones, which are ideally suited to the preferred usage patterns of sports betting players in other developed markets.
- The final report from Spectrum Gaming Group's study on New York's gaming market, due in June, will likely illuminate the potential for mobile sports betting in the state.
- The New York State Gaming Commission's Draft Report on mobile sports betting found that an estimated 65% of total sports betting gross gaming revenue would derive from a new mobile/digital channel.
- In the race to build thriving online sports betting markets, New York's neighbors in New Jersey have already capitalized on the opportunity, leaving New York to ponder the lines and stakes of mobile sports betting.
