The door opening to legal sports betting in the U.S. has generated excitement and lots of speculation about which public companies will benefit.
Prospective winners include familiar names like IGT, and Scientific Games; big casino operators such as Caesars and MGM Resorts; and operators of multiple regional casinos like Penn National, Boyd, Eldorado and Churchill Downs.
But sports betting is also introducing a number of publicly held foreign companies to US investors.
Here are a few of them with big American ambitions:
William Hill, probably the best known of the international companies as it is the largest operator of sports books in Nevada.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WMH, William Hill has long prepped for the day sports betting would become legal in the U.S., and already runs risk management for Delaware and recently opened at Monmouth Park racetrack in New Jersey, the first sports in the US outside of a casino.
U.S. CEO Joe Asher is an American who, though still young, long ago established himself in Nevada when he helped get mobile gaming legalized with Cantor Gaming and later started his own sports betting company that he sold to William Hill.
One of Asher’s strengths is his political acumen. It would not be surprising to see William Hill sports books pop up throughout the country as legislatures legalize sports betting.
The U.S. can be important to William Hill. However, investors have to look at the rest of the world, especially the UK, where higher taxes and lower bet limits on gaming machines in betting shops affect the company.
Paddy Power Betfair is another London-listed sports betting operator with a long US presence, having operated account wagering firm TVG.
PPB didn’t even let the ink dry on the U.S. Supreme Court decision before announcing it is buying FanDuel, the second-largest daily fantasy sports operator that will provide its seven million sports-oriented customers.
Paddy Power Betfair is less affected than William Hill by the planned UK betting limits on gaming machines, so little, in fact, that it has not opposed proposals to cut the limits from £100 to as low as £2. Paddy Power Betfair also operates online in New Jersey.
GAN is considerably smaller than William Hill and Paddy Power Betfair, so it takes less to move the needle. It had net revenue last year of £9.1 million, compared to over £1.7 billion for both William Hill and Paddy Power.
The London-listed company’s big pitch in the US has been what it calls Simulated Gaming, which is setting up full online casino gaming, but not for real money wagering. The idea is that the operation can contribute to casino profits and, on the day online gaming is legalized, the casino is ready to start real money wagering.
GAN’s commitment to growing in the US is illustrated by CEO Dermot Smurfit having moved to Las Vegas. To date, GAN has signed up a number of Simulated Gaming clients and expects to be active in sports betting. GAN also operates online in New Jersey.
Kambi provides sports book platforms to online operators and, at €64 million in revenues last year, the Stockholm-listed company is on the small side, again meaning the U.S. can be a needle mover.
Like Paddy Power Betfair, Kambi wasted no time after the Supreme Court decision, selling its platform to Rush Street Gaming. More recently, Kambi announced a similar deal with DraftKings, the largest daily fantasy sports
