A massive shutdown of sports on a global scale may have seemed like an impossible scenario a few months ago, but the coronavirus pandemic has proved anything is possible, considering the massive lockdown that sports experienced along with other sectors because of the coronavirus outbreak. However, with many retail businesses closing and even with the absence of American sports and most other sports, businesses involved in online gambling, sports betting and fantasy sports in the US have not slowed down, a trend that has facilitated continued prosperity for gambling operators and their related companies.
Some analysts have noted that the coronavirus outbreak has emphasized the versatility of online gambling that could be one of the main factors to facilitate its further success. Furthermore, more companies and investors seem to begin realizing that online gambling does not automatically equal sports betting only, but also esports, online horse racing, online casino and poker, etc.
According to experts, DraftKings is among the companies that have managed to mark staggering prosperity during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Right in the middle of the Covid-19 outbreak in the spring, the operator managed to finalize a merger with the gaming technology company SBTech and the special purpose acquisition firm Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corporation.
Following the merger, DraftKings began trading on NASDAQ in April 2020, with its stock marking an upward trend ever since. Last month, the sports betting and daily fantasy sports contest provider revealed that the firm and its shareholders were selling an additional 33 million shares.
US Online Gambling and Sports Betting Sector Expected to Continue to Grow
DraftKings, however, is not the only company in the iGaming, daily fantasy and sports betting sector that has managed to outline a bright future even in the conditions of an almost nonexistent sports sector in the spring of 2020.
GAN Limited, a company that provides online gambling software to the US retail casino industry, also held an Initial Public Offering (IPO) during the Covid-19 lockdown at the beginning of May. Opening at a price of $8.50 per share, its NASDAQ share price has experienced a rapid increase since then.
Most recently, DraftKings was joined by the Golden Nugget as the only “solely online” US casino operator that is being publicly traded. The move came after Golden Nugget Online Gambling was acquired by Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets, through his company Landcadia Holdings II. Enthusiasm in the sports betting sector of the US has been rising. Last month, Roundhill Investments released its Sports Betting and iGaming “BETZ” exchange-traded fund, which has Flutter Entertainment, GVC Holdings, GAN Limited and DraftKings amongst its largest holdings.
The upward trend in the online gambling and sports betting industry in the US has not only been proved by the decision of some operators to initiated the beginning of their trade on public markets. More operators become oriented to offering iGaming and sports betting products across the country, with some of them even revealing an intention to invest extra funds in the venture.
The sports betting and iGaming sector in the US is projected to grow in the years to come. Apart from that, some companies’ public market debuts have fuelled speculation for more iGaming entities that may decide to go public by the end of 2020 and at the beginning of 2021. A few companies that some experts have considered “ripe” for such a step are the developer of social casino gaming apps DoubleDown Interactive, Fortnite’s developer Epic Games, as well as Unity Technologies, another gaming software provider.
