Man, it feels like just yesterday everybody was riding the high wave of sports betting. Back when the Supreme Court gave it the thumbs up to spread its wings beyond Vegas, state after state was giving it the green light. Cash was flowing like a river, with investors tripping over themselves to throw dough into the ring. Before you knew it, there were like 50 sportsbooks out there all jostling for a piece of the pie.

But oh, how times have changed. The scene’s getting kinda grim, with some of these places having to shut their doors for good simply click the following page. It’s making a bunch of folks scratch their heads, wondering what the heck is gonna happen next in this world of wagers and odds.

Truth be told, the battlefield’s packed and only the big dogs with deep pockets are holding their ground. We're talking about the heavy hitters — FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Caesars — hogging around 90% of the game in the US. That’s what the smart folks over at Eilers
Truth be told, the battlefield’s packed and only the big dogs with deep pockets are holding their ground. We're talking about the heavy hitters — FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Caesars — hogging around 90% of the game in the US. That’s what the smart folks over at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming LLC are saying, anyway. This leaves crumbs for the little guys trying to make a name for themselves.

Investors? They’ve had it up to here with money-burning apps that throw cash at ads and crazy ""bet for free"" deals just to grab new bettors. Take DraftKings, for example. Since March 2021, their stock took a nosedive by about 80%, while the S&P 500 just kinda floated around doing nothing. And with California giving sports betting the cold shoulder last month, there are some serious question marks about how this whole industry is gonna keep growing cnn.

“Man, everyone was totally hyped about this stuff in 2019 and 2020,” said James Kilsby, who knows the ins and outs of the industry at Vixio. “But in the past year or so, the excitement's kinda fizzled out.”
Some folks have already thrown in the towel or dialed back their dreams. Earlier this year, the gang that runs the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs Inc., said ""no thanks"" to their sports gambling biz. Then, in October, FuboTV Inc., which is not just any streaming service but one that dove into the betting pool, decided to call it quits too. And last month, 888 Holdings Plc, which has this Sports Illustrated-themed betting app going on, decided to shift gears and focus more on places where they can get into online casino stuff, cause let's face it, the sports betting arena is like swimming with sharks.



“Boy, the market’s been nothing but rough for the last year and a half or so,” they said.

Now, let me tell you about MaximBet’s wild ride. Carousel Group kicked things off in 2020 with their site SportsBetting.com. Fast forward a year, and they're shaking hands with Maxim, that mag known for its racy pics, and voila, MaximBet is born.

From the get-go, MaximBet was all about that high-energy, luxe life vibe. They’d throw these insane parties where you’d be rubbing shoulders with celebrities. This one Halloween bash at a Denver museum? It was off the charts, with DJs, flight simulators, and even Fat Joe spitting rhymes. One of the crew told me about giving away snowboards, ski trips, XBoxes, and some sweet suite tickets to Rockies games.

MaximBet didn’t stop there, no sir. They tried to get bets rolling on the Puppy Bowl (no dice, though), inked a deal with Charlie Blackmon from the Rockies, making him the first ballplayer economist in over a hundred years to get paid by a betting company, and brought Nicki Minaj into the mix as an investor and the face to draw the ladies in. She was even dubbed the “1st Lady of Sports Betting” by TMZ.

“Get your game face on for these wild parties, and remember: if you’re too scared to bet, you ain’t gonna win big!” is pretty much what Minaj was preaching. “Lay down those bets!”

But despite all the hype, Minaj wasn’t really out there pushing the app, based on what an ex-employee told me. We didn’t hear back from her PR when we tried to get a comment. And all those crazy parties? They didn’t exactly get people flocking to sign up.



Within half a year of launching in Colorado, MaximBet had burned through $3.7 million on marketing — that’s more than twice what they made. Talk about a gamble that didn’t pay off. Come mid-November, after hitting some rough patches with finding investors, they announced it was game over. Word on the street is that MaximBet didn’t even hit the 10,000 customer mark.

Daniel Graetzer, the big brain behind MaximBet, wasn’t too keen on that number. Looking back, he wishes they had jumped into the game a couple of years earlier and scooped up more cash when it was flowing more freely.

“The market’s been nothing but tough over the last year and a half,” Graetzer said, and honestly, you can hear the disappointment.

These days, investors are kinda playing hard to get when it comes to funding sports-betting ventures. Thanks to the slide in DraftKings’ stock, they’re not exactly feeling all warm and fuzzy about taking companies public or dreaming of big-money exits, according to Chris Grove, who’s got his finger on the pulse at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming and drops some cash on early-stage sports betting ventures himself.

This whole shutdown situation is even causing waves in the pro sports world. Just last year, Fubo scored a sponsorship deal with the New York Jets, splashing their name across a lounge in MetLife Stadium where fans could get in on the betting action. But now, after Fubo said ""sayonara"" to the betting biz, the Jets are going after them, claiming they’re still owed some cash. Fubo's firing back, saying the Jets' gripes are baseless, and they’re ready to put up a fight forbes.



Even with some spots closing up shop, giants like FanDuel probably won’t even bat an eye, because why bother scooping up these little apps with their tiny customer bases and not-so-hot tech? Grove’s thinking we’ll see more hook-ups between sports betting companies and online casinos, which are raking in the dough. DraftKings, for instance, recently snagged Golden Nugget Online Gaming Inc., which is all about those online card games.

Now, sports betting is legit in over 30 states, which is wild, but with Cali giving it the thumbs down, future growth is looking like a serious uphill battle. Kilsby, our analyst friend at Vixio, thinks Texas might be the next big hope for the betting world when they reconvene next year.

And let’s not forget about the big ol' question mark that is a potential recession. How that’s gonna play out with bettors is anyone’s guess, cause there ain't much data on it. Last time the economy took a nosedive in 2008, online sports betting in the US wasn't even a thing.



So what’s the bottom line? More sports-betting apps are probably gonna hit the dead end. Eilers & Krejcik dropped the bomb just last month that Fox Bet, owned by Flutter Entertainment Plc, is on thin ice, and shutting down seems like a done deal. Despite big-time promotion during Fox’s broadcasts, they’ve barely scratched 1% of the US market. Flutter, which also owns the top dog FanDuel, kept mum on the topic.