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August 2020

Betcha prioritizes social gaming in new Fantasy Sports app

By Sports app

As the sport continues its tumultuous comeback during the pandemic, a new daily fantasy sports platform is betting that a less transactional experience – based on elements of social gaming – will appeal to casual fans more broadly.

After closing a $ 2 million funding round led by Sinai Ventures, Muse Capital and B-Fore Capital, Betcha is getting off to a smooth start this week as a daily fantasy sports platform for traditional sports and esports with real money games. But the company doesn’t just want to be another FanDuel or DraftKings, so it’s building a “social gamified experience” to unlock network effects and differentiate itself from more number-oriented platforms.

“Our vision is to turn game prediction into a game by combining the ability to win real money with unique and social gamification features,” said Jason Shapiro, Betcha Revenue Director.

This strategy includes borrowing from elements of successful social fitness companies such as Peloton and Strava, which leverage geographic and interest-specific peer groups to drive engagement. Peloton, for example, allows people with common interests, like moms in the San Francisco Bay Area, to unlock carpool badges or compete for places on the leaderboards to hold each other accountable. Betcha’s version is all about having fan-based ownership challenges with people who share, for example, similar team loyalties. Any New York Yankees fan, for example, could compete for a chance to become a virtual commissioner, owner or general manager who will unlock prizes, merchandise, tickets and VIP experiences.

“Peloton is an interesting competition for us,” said Shapiro. “We’re both taking a single player game and layering social elements on top of it.”

Betcha also borrows from playbooks from social game companies like Fortnite and Candy Crush to create network effects. It does this by creating a financial incentive for groups of friends to submit bets together, even if they are supporting opposing teams. Users can invite up to five of their Betcha friends to submit entries for a particular event. For each friend who also places an entry on the same game, all potential payouts increase by 0.1x, giving everyone the chance to increase their winnings by 0.5x per game.

“When you’re in that real-life setting and betting against each other and there’s a component of trash talk, or betting with each other and looking for the same outcome, that’s the thing. ‘experience that people tend to gravitate towards, ”Shapiro says. “It creates a ton of value on the platform to do it together even if you don’t agree.”

Betcha has put a lot of effort into figuring out why social games make people “spend so much time, money and effort on perfecting themselves and securing things that have no tangible value.” Betcha allows users to follow friends or influencers and engage with their choices, go on missions, appear in leaderboards, and complete challenges. The games are structured like props (think: top / bottom) in which users compete against the house, similar to Betcha Monkey Knife Fight competitor.

It also uses a virtual currency that cannot be withdrawn to further incentivize users to submit entries. Normally, in a parlay (multi-bet), a user would lose if they missed a single choice. At Betcha, a user will get back part of their Betcha Bucks entry fee if they get 50% or more of their correct choice.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused extreme uncertainty in sports and barred fans from attending matches in person, it has created an immediate need to connect through digital platforms in a social way. Shapiro highlights the success esports and mobile games had during the sports blackout as an example of how consumers are looking for connection online.

“The growth of mobile gaming continues to be off the charts,” Shapiro says. “We think the ability to do these things through our platform, and the fact that we see ourselves almost as a game in and of itself rather than a new sports and fantasy betting platform, is going to align quite well with that. the new COVID standard. “

Added to this is the desire of physical casino operators to attract younger fans to their online gaming platforms and associated outlets, especially since many of them have been forced to close for a few years. months during quarantine. This trend started before the pandemic, however, with Penn National Gaming buying a stake in Barstool Sports in February in an effort to attract younger consumers.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Scott Butera, President of Interactive Gaming at MGM Resorts International, said that sports-related experiences (like sports betting) have fueled engagement and led to revenue growth for his products and brands. He predicted that more festive experiences around the sport would boost global betting and introduce more casual fans to predictive gambling.

“If you create some kind of competition out of sports betting where it’s not just about checking your bank statement, it’s about seeing where you stack up against your peers, or creating a stadium experience. where you have people competing against each other or in other arenas, you can create something much more interesting, ”said Butera.

Betcha aims to seek partnership opportunities in the months and years to come, which could include partnering with a major gaming operator to bring sports betting to its more laid-back fan base, or act as a fantastic white label product. which could be used by non-endemic sports and media brands. Casino companies “have an aging demo and are struggling to attract young people,” Shapiro explains. “There is no doubt that some of the elements that we have incorporated will be attractive for a young demo. “

And although there were initially fears that this trend could lead to “a lot of cannibalization” in the industry, Shapiro says it is also possible “that the opposite is true and that they may in fact reach younger consumers. where they are not necessarily going to these places.

Betcha has obtained regulatory approval to immediately launch in 20 states plus DC, with plans to eventually deploy 30 or more. Among his notable advisers are Seth Schorr, president of Fifth Street Gaming; Neil Shah, former head of design at Verizon and chief marketing officer of Venmo; and two former executives of DraftKings.

“Sports betting marketing as it is today has not changed for 30 years, although people in the industry say there is clearly an opportunity to do so,” Shapiro said. “We hope to be at the forefront of moving this experience forward.”

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Launch of the Wynn Sports app in New Jersey with an online casino

By Sports app

There’s a new app in town, and it’s Wynn Sports. After a five-day smooth launch approved by the Gaming Law Enforcement Division on July 27, the Wynn Sports app is available in New Jersey.

With Wynn now live via the Caesars Interactive licensed, there are 18 NJ sports betting apps.

Users can access the platform through ios and Android devices, as well as by visiting wynnsports.com. Customers using an Android device can download the app from the website.

Wynn Sports is powered by a European company BetBull Limited and Gaming solutions for global payments.

Perfect timing for Wynn Sports

August is normally one of the slowest months on the NJ sports betting calendar.

Think about it.

Most years, Major League Baseball is the only sport in progress.

But due to the global pandemic, the major professional sports leagues are in the early stages of their respective reboots.

So here are some of the current betting options at Wynn Sports:

PGA Tour the odds, however, were not live Tuesday afternoon. One would assume that this is also a work in progress.

The PGA Championship, the first of three major tournaments, kicks off Thursday morning. And Tiger woods is playing.

Click a thumbnail below to view screenshots of the Wynn Sports iOS app:

Wynn NJ Online Casino is also live

Like many other NJ online sportsbooks, Wynn integrated their sports betting into an NJ online casino. Users will have access to a shared wallet.

However, like the sports app, Wynn Casino currently has limited offers.

There is no such thing as blackjack, roulette, or poker. And the slots library includes just over 40 titles. Here is a selection:

  • 200K Jester Jackpot
  • Starmania
  • Astonished
  • irish eyes 2
  • Money rush

So it looks like Wynn is slowly growing his online gaming portfolio in New Jersey. BetBull has informed Play in New Jersey that much more is planned for the application.

With the start of Paris NFL Fast approaching, the list of offers will expand in the coming weeks.

In the process, New Jersey customers have another online bookie to try out as a comeback of the sport.

Call it a Wynn win.

Comcast and NBC Sports app violated avalanche ranking game broadcast ban rules – The Denver Post

By Sports app

Comcast broke blackout rules by hosting the Avalanche’s first ranking match on Sunday on its NHL Center Ice platform.

The game against the St. Louis Blues was also broadcast on the NBC Sports app, which was also subject to a power outage.

Comcast owns NBCUniversal and is in a high-profile commercial feud with Altitude Sports, which held the exclusive rights to Sunday’s game in the Denver area.

Among the “big three” TV providers in the region, Altitude is currently only available on DirecTV, with Comcast and Dish Network unable to strike a distribution rights agreement with the regional sports network.

Comcast, which is also involved in a dispute with Altitude, said the broadcast of Sunday’s game was “human error” by entering blackout restriction codes.

“We are taking the appropriate protections to prevent this from happening again in the future,” Comcast spokeswoman Leslie Oliver told The Post.

Comcast deferred questions about the violation of the NBCSports app to NBC, and an NBC executive wrote in a statement, “It was human error, and we are taking appropriate action to prevent it from happening again.”

In a statement to the Post, Altitude CEO Matthew Hutchings said: The NHL informed us last night that Comcast showed the Avalanche vs. Blues game to its subscribers on the Center Ice package in the outdoor market in the Denver area. The league said it was a mistake on Comcast’s part and said Comcast assured the NHL that Comcast had fixed the situation so it wouldn’t happen again. We understand that the Avs / Blues game was also made available by NBC / Comcast on the NBC Sports app in the Metro Denver area. By NHL rules, that too should have been unavailable. NBC SportsNet has the ability to ensure that games are only broadcast where it is permitted by NHL rules to distribute games. It is ironic that these mishaps have occurred in a market where Comcast continues to refuse to offer Altitude on the same terms and conditions that other distributors have agreed to.

As for the rules, there seems to be a misconception that Altitude Sports is blocking games in the region. Altitude Sports continues to televise avalanche games in the Denver area, as it has for sixteen years. Comcast and Dish Network have both refused to negotiate deals that would allow their customers to watch Avalanche games on Altitude. The NHL maintains an exclusive regional zone for home broadcasts in the 31 markets that have teams. Under NHL rules, television broadcasts of NHL games on NBC SportNet are not broadcast on the domestic market of any of these teams. Altitude Sports does not exclude these games. Altitude Sports signs agreements with the team and its distributors that cover the national market designated by the NHL. Apart from its obligations to distribute the games, Altitude does not have the right or the authority to create a blackout, and even if it could lift a blackout, Altitude would be prohibited by its agreements with its other distributors from doing so. To do.

We encourage Comcast and DISH Network to strike a deal that would return Altitude, the Nuggets and the Avalanche to their hometown fans.