SBJ Unpacks: Same-game parlays a big winner for U.S. sportsbooks

Tonight in Unpacks:  Four years ago, FanDuel adopted a new way of creating parlay bets, and as SBJ’s Bill King reports in next week’s magazine, it changed the way sportsbooks operated in the U.S.

• Entrepreneurs discuss state of startup landscape
• Jon Patricof, Athletes Unlimited seeing growth from player governance formula
• Josh Harris dishes on getting into the NFL
• NHL looks to skate to where the gamers are

Listen to SBJ's most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where SBJ’s Joe Lemire ushers in December with a wrap-up on the Dealmakers conference, more Messi Mania for Inter Miami, the XFL-USFL merger getting federal approval and more.  

AWARDS ALERT: Forty Under 40 nominations close Monday, Dec. 4. Nominate a leader who is positively impacting the industry here.

FanDuel’s import of same-game multi-bets from Australia brings U.S. operators together around a fan-friendly focus

After seeing success with NBA games, Flutter decided to export its same-game odds model to the U.S., where FanDuel branded it as the “Same Game Parlay.”

Player props were a natural landing spot for casual U.S. bettors, who’d been building fantasy lineups for decades. Allowing them to cobble together several from a game they planned to watch, at parlay odds that gave them a chance to win more while risking less, was the sports-betting version of Reese’s marrying peanut butter to chocolate.

Today, FanDuel says about 90% of its active users have placed a same-game parlay bet. In Illinois, the only state that reveals not only how much bettors wager each month but also how many bets they place and which books they place them with, parlays made up 71% of all bets placed through FanDuel last year -- 95.9 million bets totaling $982.3 million.

At DraftKings, parlays were 54% of wagers last year, up from 32% in 2020. PointsBet saw its parlay percentage go from 22% in 2020 to 47% through August of this year. BetRivers, which is based in Illinois and is the No. 3 sportsbook there behind FanDuel and DraftKings, went from 11% in 2021 to 47% thus far this year.

Entrepreneurs discuss state of startup landscape

Becoming an entrepreneur is all about the startup and investment landscapes, and they can be different for everyone. On the final day of SBJ Dealmakers, a panel consisting of ViewLift co-founder and CEO Rick Allen, Players Health Founder and CEO Tyrre Burks, Sportsbox AI Founder and CEO Jeehae Lee and Playbook 5 Founder Jason Robinson discussed their success in scaling and fundraising during difficult economic times, reports SBJ's Juwan Watson.

For Burks, he said “it was really personal” as he played collegiately and professionally for a few years in what was “a safe place” for him and many others, an ideal his risk-management insurance company, Players Health, embodies.

Fundraising through the pandemic brought challenges for many, as Robinson said “not being able to touch and feel people and be able to meet with them and go through that process” as they fundraised through VR had negative impacts. Lee also started her company during COVID in 2020. The fundraising landscape was a challenge she thought “was great” and was “very fortunate to have some great investors” backing Sportsbox AI along the way.

Allen said he's “seen all sorts of economic cycles,” and the pandemic was “actually an awfully good time for entertainment providers,” as people were watching more content. He noted how scaling can be “extremely tough,” particularly for first-time and young entrepreneurs.

Jon Patricof, Athletes Unlimited seeing growth from player governance formula

Athletes Unlimited co-founder and CEO Jon Patricof discussed how partnering with athletes has given the organization an advantage when it comes to monetizing in a competitive market, reports SBJ's Na'Andre Emerson.

Patricof, speaking on Day 2 of SBJ Dealmakers in D.C., described how the league’s BOD from each sport meets weekly with a player exec committee and the senior management team to explore further monetization opportunities. “With AU, you have the league level, you have each of these sports, and then you have this opportunity to work with world-class athletes, the best pro athletes and their sports,” said Patricof. “And that's very different.”

Asked about why there was a need for AU, Patricof said he looked at the landscape in 2018 and saw how women’s soccer had “massive commercial opportunity” because the growing popularity of women athletes. “I started looking at investment opportunities in the NWSL and WNBA, and that actually led me to a partnership with Jonathan Soros, and really, to this new idea that we should start these leagues from scratch.” He touted how AU now operates on a “tremendous scale,” putting on 130 games a year across the four leagues with 69 broadcasts nationally.

For all of SBJ's Dealmakers conference coverage, go here. 

Josh Harris dishes on getting into the NFL

Commanders owner Josh Harris told the Dealmakers conference crowd that he wants Washington fans to regain what they once had at RFK Stadium decades ago -- and what he saw in Seattle when his team traveled to Lumen Field to play the Seahawks: A competitive edge from the sheer force of the crowd, reports SBJ's Ben Fischer. "RFK was a place where the opposing teams didn't want to play -- we had an extra man on the field," Harris remembered.

This week's SBJ Football newsletter also covers:

• Rough news week for trio of owners
• Rams find a new market for SoFi video board takeovers: anime
• Giants scramble to maximize 'Tommy Cutlets' storyline

NHL looks to skate to where the gamers are

The NHL’s new partnership with online fan engagement platform Rival is an intuitive step for the league as it continues to search for younger fans plugged into gaming, reports SBJ's Kevin Hitt. “The initial objective for getting in hasn't changed,” said Chris Golier, the NHL’s group VP/global innovation. “This is a youth touchpoint for us.”

Also in this week's SBJ Esports newsletter, Hitt reports from the PWR UP Summit, where he gauged the mood of the industry as longtime stick-and-ball owners leave but other heavy hitters, like Shopify, step in.

• Starco Brands entered a naming rights deal with the LA Bowl Hosted By Gronk, and the SoFi Stadium-owned game will be known as the Starco Brands LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk.  

• Golf Canada and RBC re-imagined the logo for the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open for 2024, recognizing Canadian Nick Taylor’s walk-off victory last year, reports SBJ's Josh Carpenter.