C O LU M N AND ANOTHER THING...
Welcome to the New World OPINION
Joe Brennan
SportAD chief executive Joe Brennan helped launch New Jersey’s case against PASPA in 2008. Here, he celebrates the madness of success
I
“In the rush past the normal things including ‘suitability’, and ‘licensing’, the important thing is to just get live” 86
t has been only a few weeks since the US Supreme Court tossed PASPA onto the ash heap of history. Yet we seem to have blown past the jubilation and driven straight into the madness of a live market. For a result that some of us have been working in earnest for since 2008, it has, in an odd way, come too quickly. I was not alone in thinking the Court wouldn’t release its decision until the end of its term in June, given the precedent it could set by overturning PASPA. The ‘anti-commandeering’ argument that had been the focus of New Jersey lawyer Ted Olson’s legal team is supremely disruptive. It may affect issues such as gun control, healthcare, abortion and other hot-button issues. Welcome, then, to the New World of legal betting. In the rush past normal things including ‘suitability’, ‘testing’ and ‘licensing’, the important thing is to just get live – but don’t make any mistakes. Delaware, whose motto ‘The First State’ acknowledges its uncanny ability to capitalise on the hard work done by others, was the first to take newly legal single-game wagers. Initial wagering volume was encouraging, giving hope that betting revenue at the state’s three racinos may one day exceed the state’s number one business: collecting tolls on the Interstate 95 highway. New Jersey took its first legal bet on 14 June, when Governor Phil Murphy placed the opening wager at Monmouth Park (pictured above).
Governor Murphy was the last of three New Jersey governors to have their name affixed to the state’s legal endeavours, preceded by Govs. Jon Corzine and Chris Christie. His first bet was, in my opinion, very un-New Jersey like: on Germany to win the 2018 World Cup. With the state’s first legal bet graded a ‘loser’, the next biggest action is on the question of who will become partners for the state’s casinos and racetracks in this new world of regulated betting. The answer: it helps if you’re British. America just celebrated its 242nd anniversary of telling Britain what it could go do to itself, yet now the country seems to be in a big hurry to surrender to King William (Hill, that is). I’ll reserve judgement on this until said UK bookies take in one bet what they normally take in one week on sports not named soccer. In the meantime, while we wait for FanDuel and DraftKings to finish their crash course in ‘How to Be a Bookie’ and for Denise Coates to resurrect the head of Ray Winstone on Garden State flat-screens, as part of a company that has been operating – legally – for the last year in the market, I would just like to welcome you all to the neighbourhood. n Joe Brennan is the CEO of SportAD, which operates the fantasy sports/betting hybrid FastPick. com for Resorts Casino in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He is the former CEO of iMEGA