For the sports betting industry, 2020 was supposed to be one for the books.
The timing for the coronavirus outbreak, however, could not have been worse for the wide-eyed casinos and online sportsbooks operators expecting to capitalize on legal sports wagering expanding across the U.S.
“Timing is really bad because it happened right before March Madness, one of the signature sporting events on the calendar and that was canceled. Obviously the hiatus of NBA and NHL seasons. We should be talking about the first week of Major League Baseball season right about now.” said Joe Asher, CEO of betting site William Hill US in an interview with Cheddar. The company furloughed more than 600 workers amid fallout from the pandemic.
March Madness was expected to be a major revenue driver for sportsbooks. In 2019, Nevada set a new monthly handle record with basketball during March Madness accounting for $495 million. Without the NCAA basketball tournament and the suspension of major sporting events, Nevada’s economy will be hit especially hard, Asher added.
”It's hard to see a complete recovery in Las Vegas until you start to get into 2021, and then you can debate from there when it’s going to be,” Asher said.
While some bettors are getting their gambling fix by wagering on obscure events including eSports, Madden simulations, Russian table tennis, and sumo wrestling, the volume of betting pales in comparison to what William Hill is used to and does not help fill the revenue gap the sportsbook is experiencing.
“Historically our Nevada business last year made about $45 million in EBIT and that was funding the expansion across the country. [I was] expecting something similar to that for this year until about a month ago.”
A return by major sports leagues including the NBA and MLB would be an important first-step for the sports betting industry to regain its footing, even if fans are unable to attend.
“When sports resume I happen to think it’s most likely going to be in an empty arena. Hopefully we can salvage the NBA and NHL seasons and play in empty arenas but be able to broadcast and of course that'll allow people to bet on them,” said Asher.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
