Top stories around our network this week
You bring together top executives of leading gaming companies to discuss sports betting in front of thousands of industry-connected individuals in Las Vegas, and interesting conversations are bound to occur, both publicly and privately. That was the case this week, as every year at the American Gaming Association’s Global Gaming Expo, or G2E.
The CEOs of FanDuel and DraftKings had what was described as a “kumbaya moment” during their time together on stage. In their own panel discussion, however, leaders of California’s major gaming tribes offered nothing but scorn for the major commercial operators, whom they feel disrespect them, with the pending California Proposition 27 initiative as one example.
In a broader sense, there was talk of how the sports betting industry needs to evolve to build relevance for new customers, with Uber’s own business evolution as a role model of sorts. Barstool Sports CEO 'Erika Nardini gave her take on how that company has helped transform traditional approaches to sports betting engagement on behalf of owner PENN Entertainment. She wasn’t the only prominent female speaking at the event, where panels focused on trends toward both attracting more women to betting and to positions in the betting industry.
Our reporting team was all over the convention space to monitor the key discussions in Las Vegas, and we also kept following and writing about developments in the rest of the country, as this past week’s stories show from our multiple sites.
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