Digital Wager Wire highlights the most important events impacting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industry each week throughout the year.
4 Nations Betting Bonanza
There was surprising interest in the 4 Nations hockey tournament from the very beginning, but the political maelstrom swirling between the United States and Canada was the perfect underpinning for a clash between the two powerhouse hockey nations to settle the score on the ice.
The first game between the squads saw the gloves drop within nine seconds of the opening whistle, with three fights occurring simultaneously. Ultimately, the Americans secured a 3-1 victory, but the normally friendly rivalry with their neighbors from the Great White North had turned into a blood feud, and interest soared because of it.
The teams would meet again in the finals, and the game lived up to the hype. Conor McDavid would give the Canadians the redemption they so desperately sought, as well as the 4 Nations title, when he deposited the winning goal in overtime to claim a 3-2 victory over the USA.
Unprecedented Betting Action
Betting interest in the tournament was unparalleled at the sportsbooks. FanDuel reported that the four-team tournament averaged 6 times as many bets as an average NHL game, while the championship game between the USA and Canada generated 11 times the number of bets as the average number of wagers on an NHL game this season.
“A Game 7 atmosphere and style of play is what we anticipated, and it was exactly what we got in every which way,” Caesars head of hockey Karry Shreeve said in an email. “Customers were all over the USA out of the gates, especially when they went down 1-0 and were around +150 to bet on to win.
“Anytime goal scorer saw record handle, and customers were rewarded when McDavid scored the game-winner in overtime. The betting only ramped up when the game did go to OT, proving everyone was locked in until the very end.”
Minnesota Sports Betting Stalls
Several attempts have been made at bringing mobile sports betting to the Minnesota masses, and despite unprecedented optimism for a winning bill to make it across the finish line during this legislative session, alas, it was not to be.
Despite support from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA), concerns revolving around problem gambling stymied Senator Matt Klein’s sports betting bill, SF 757, in a Senate committee.
“This bill, for the first time, enjoys the support of the previous combatants in this area: the 11 sovereign tribal nations, Canterbury Park, the Allied Charities, and the Minnesota professional sports teams,” Klein said while introducing the bill to the Senate’s State and Local Government Committee on Thursday.
It was a 6-6 vote in the Senate State and Local Government Committee that signaled the end of Klein’s bill and will likely have Minnesotans waiting until next year before any movement occurs on the mobile sports betting front.
Senator Erin Maye Quade, a fellow DFL colleague of Klein’s, stated, “This benefits literally nobody except a predatory tech industry. There is so much more work to get any sort of real protections. If the industry likes this bill, it’s probably not good.”
