EGR US Power Rankings 2024

Welcome to our sixth annual snapshot of the online gambling industry’s go-to rundown of the most dominant players in the US market.

Please note, the following rankings are solely comprised of online operators.

1. Flutter Entertainment (=) 

• $4.5bn: Revenue generated in 2023, a 41% increase on 2022
• 38%: Share of Flutter’s global revenue that is derived from the US 
• 13.5%: FanDuel Sportsbook’s gross win margin in Q4, up 220bps year on year (YOY) 
• 3.7m: New sports betting and igaming customers that FanDuel acquired in 2023
• 33%: Share of Super Bowl live wagers placed via Quick Bets feature

It’s now five in a row for Flutter Entertainment as the Dublin-based online juggernaut — fueled almost singlehandedly by FanDuel — finds itself once again ensconced at the summit of the EGR US Power Rankings.  

Even though the gap between Flutter and DraftKings, based on BDO’s scoring system, is far from a chasm, the performance of FanDuel over the past 12 months means Flutter still wears the crown. This is supported by the company’s full-year 2023 results, published in March, that revealed FanDuel led online US sports betting with a 43.2% slice of the market in Q4 2023 based on gross revenue (53.4% on net revenue).

Having a powerful brand such as FanDuel is one thing, yet it will only get you so far if your product isn’t up to scratch. However, Flutter’s flagship subsidiary boasts arguably the best sports betting product in the US market. In fact, FanDuel topped Eilers & Krejcik Gaming’s (EKG) app testing report, published last November, for the fourth quarter in a row and performed a clean sweep across every category: UX, betting interface, features, core, and aesthetics.

Meanwhile, the Parlay Hub — a new feature unleashed during the previous NFL season — drove 1.5 million pre-packaged same game parlays (SGPs) on this year’s Super Bowl alone, Flutter reported. 

FanDuel’s momentum in igaming continues as product upgrades and team expansion appears to have paid off. Management feels FanDuel Casino is now on “product parity” with its closest rivals, while the recent acquisition of jackpot and multiplayer supplier BeyondPlay is expected to deliver further market share gains. Flutter said it achieved a 25.7% share of US igaming in the final three months of 2023, and that FanDuel overtook the competition to become the number one igaming brand based on GGR at the end of January 2024.

Elsewhere, bosses pulled the plug on the underperforming Fox Bet last summer, a decision that was probably overdue. And PokerStars in the US (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan) has been removed from Flutter’s US division; it will now fall under its international segment.

Finally, champagne corks were popping on January 29 when Flutter listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Flutter will propose to shareholders in May that the Big Apple replaces London as the primary listing, underscoring the importance of the US as the company’s largest segment.

2. DraftKings (=) 

• 25: Number of US states DraftKings is live in with its mobile sportsbook
• $116: Average revenue per monthly unique player in the three months to December 31, 2023
• $1.3bn: Approximate cash pile at the end of 2023     
• 37%: YOY increase in unique customers in the last three months of 2023  
• $750m: Amount agreed to acquire leading lottery courier Jackpocket

A 134% jump in DraftKings’ stock over the past 12 months — resulting in a market cap now north of $21bn — is reflective of an operator riding a wave of bullish investor sentiment amid positive topline growth.

Revenue last year climbed 64% YOY to $3.67bn, while monthly unique players rose from 2.6 million in 2022 to 3.5 million. The bottom line has also been trending in the right direction, with the firm in 2023 achieving its first two EBITDA-positive quarters since launching more than a decade ago. EBITDA improved by almost $600m last year and management expects 2024 to be the first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA.

On the product front, DraftKings continues to iterate and innovate. One recent example was last December’s rollout of Progressive Parlay, a sportsbook feature where a parlay bet can still win even if every leg doesn’t hit. Also, the SGP product has been upgraded in the past couple of years and is pretty much powered by proprietary pricing these days.

In addition, with igaming, the in-house-developed jackpots and live dealer product are viewed internally as differentiators in a commoditized arena. All this has helped grab market share. In fact, DraftKings temporarily took the US market share lead — in Q3 2023 — for combined OSB and igaming GGR.

The point at which DraftKings began to eat into FanDuel’s lead appears to have coincided with the 2022 acquisition of casino-first operator Golden Nugget Online Gaming. A dual-brand igaming strategy and leveraging Golden Nugget to directly acquire casino players, rather than cross-sell slots and table games to sports bettors, has paid off for the group. A third name will soon be added to the portfolio after the $750m acquisition of Jackpocket was announced in February.

Despite Jackpocket generally having inferior player lifetime values to DraftKings and Golden Nugget, the lottery courier’s broad player base and customer acquisition costs being about 80% lower than what DraftKings spends to snag new players made the business an attractive buy. 

So, with the days of haemorrhaging eye-watering sums seemingly now in the rearview mirror, DraftKings’ stellar product, strong brand awareness, and expansion into lottery mean that the firm could be poised to retake the US market lead. And who knows, possibly top spot in next year’s EGR US Power Rankings?

3. BetMGM (=) 

• $1.96bn: NGR in 2023, which was at the top end of previous guidance
• 14%: Combined sports betting and igaming market share in states where BetMGM is live 
• 2.39: Seconds it takes to fire up the BetMGM app as of February, says Entain
• 34: Number of US jurisdictions with market access secured or anticipated 
• 91%: Increase in SGP wagers placed by customers last year

Despite maintaining third place, the past 12 months have been somewhat challenging for BetMGM as the 50/50 joint venture (JV) between MGM Resorts International and Entain saw its combined market share for OSB and igaming slide to 14%.

On the plus side, NGR rose 36% YOY in 2023 — an increase at the top end of prior expectations — and positive EBITDA was achieved in the second half of the year. Nevertheless, making BetMGM more competitive, particularly regarding product features and derivative markets, has been a priority, in a bid to claw back market share and deliver profitable growth.

First, there was a much-needed upgrade last year to the UX and the ironing out of a major friction point with the introduction of ‘single account, single wallet’ across 21 markets ahead of the 2023 NFL season. This was so peripatetic customers can use the same BetMGM account across different states.

There has also been a focus on speed, with Entain trumpeting how app load times were 74% quicker in February 2024 compared to a year earlier. Meanwhile, Angstrom Sports-powered pre-game and live markets have been integrated as the JV benefits from Entain’s £203m ($253m) buyout, completed last October, of the US sports modeling and data analytics firm.

Improvements to SGPs and deploying fully in-house pricing models are expected to put BetMGM on a more equal footing in this key product feature battleground and, in turn, help to differentiate the offering and drive margin. Indeed, MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle recently told an audience that the margin of BetMGM’s two main rivals are “200 or 300 basis points” higher due to their SGP products. Meanwhile, in February, BetMGM struck what management hailed an “unprecedented” deal with X (formerly Twitter) to integrate live odds into the social media platform.

As for igaming, BetMGM remains on the podium in third spot based on GGR, having slipped from pole position last year. Equipped with a library of 3,600 games generating close to 300 million spins a week, it will hope to better capitalize on omnichannel opportunities in states where MGM has brick-and-mortar casinos to outmaneuver digital-only rivals.

Finally, rumors linger as to whether MGM attempts to gain full control of BetMGM or takes another run at Entain, a move made more appealing by the London-listed firm’s floundering share price.

4. Caesars Digital (=) 

• $973m: Caesars Digital’s NGR for full-year 2023
• 77%: Increase in NGR for full-year 2023 over the previous year    
• 5%: Estimated national market share based on GGR 
• 11: Number of years Caesars has offered igaming in New Jersey 
• $50.3m: Online handle generated in Arizona for the month of January

Management was understandably buoyant on the casino giant’s Q4 earnings call in February following a standout set of financial results, especially in Q4 2023 with NGR climbing 28% YOY to $304m — a new record high for the business — and sports betting volumes up 12%.

Adjusted EBITDA of $29m was also a new high. NGR for the online division over the course of 2023 set a record — $973m, up from $548m the previous year — while a $666m adjusted EBITDA loss in 2022 was transformed into a positive $38m last year as the snaking path to profitability began to unfurl. 

Caesars said customers had “responded favorably” to enhancements made to its SGP offering, in-play wagering, and streaming capabilities. One effect is more players are placing parlays, while the average number of legs per parlay “continues to steadily increase,” therefore boosting hold, the firm revealed.

Also, the standalone Caesars Palace Casino Online (CPCO) app was rolled out last August; the company noted that active customers and volumes have grown “sequentially each month.” It also skews towards female players and slots games. Digital president Eric Hession said the product and brand “resonate much better” with the Caesars Rewards database than a casino associated with the sportsbook.

Such has been CPCO’s impact that bosses revealed in February the brand already accounts for more than half of the operator’s overall online casino business. EKG has estimated that CPCO could boost Caesars’ national icasino share from 5% to about 7%-8%, although online casino bills biting the dust left, right, and center hampers Caesars’ long-term growth ambitions.

In February, Caesars pounced on the opportunity to expand its igaming footprint by snapping up WynnBet’s sports betting and igaming operations in Michigan — which had been averaging about $3m in GGR a month — for an undisclosed sum and secured market access with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Existing WynnBet customers will transition to Caesars’ igaming platform in Michigan ahead of a second brand launch slated for later this year.

Caesars has made fourth spot in the US Power Rankings its own, yet with certain rivals among the chasing pack switching gears in a bid to take market share, this household name may have its work cut out to remain among the industry’s elite.

5. PENN Entertainment (=)

• 1m+: New registrations from ESPN Bet, from November 14 launch to December 31  
• 771k: PENN’s average monthly users in Q4 2023, a rise of 207% YOY 

It was a tale of two halves for PENN Entertainment in 2023, as the multichannel operator spent the first chunk of the year bolstering its partnership with one media giant before promptly exiting in favor of a blockbuster $1.5bn deal with the so-called “worldwide leader in sports.”

While the shift from Barstool Sports to ESPN Bet immediately became a seismic event in the US market, the timing of the deal created an additional noteworthy layer. PENN, which had been operating the Barstool Sportsbook brand on Kambi’s platform, had just completed a long and arduous migration onto a proprietary tech stack last July.

The migration represented a culmination of PENN’s acquisition of theScore in 2021 and was billed as a milestone achievement that would allow Barstool Sportsbook to finally reach its full potential. In reality, Barstool was no longer in PENN’s long-term plans as the ESPN partnership was formally announced in August as part of a deal that included Barstool being sold back to founder Dave Portnoy for $1. PENN wasted little time standing up the new brand, launching ESPN Bet in 17 states by November while transitioning PENN’s icasino offering to the ESPN Bet umbrella under the Hollywood Casino brand.

While the rapid scale-up and rollout quickly led to more than one million downloads of the rebranded app — the heavy promotional spend associated with it has tightened since launch — promotional expenses as a percentage of handle landed at 32.2% in November, before slipping to 10.7% in December and 2.8% this January. PENN has shelled out eye-popping sums to accelerate its US sports betting assault, including $2bn on theScore and about $550m on Barstool Sports, so investor patience could be wearing thin.

6. Fanatics (inc. PointsBet) (=)

• 5%: Maximum earned in ‘FanCash’ credit from an SGP 
• 80%: How much less Fanatics says it typically costs to acquire users compared to rivals 

An uptick in M&A activity was a theme in 2023, and PointsBet was at the center of one of the most significant deals when the Australia-based operator offloaded its US assets to privately owned sports merchandise goliath Fanatics.

The deal, announced in May, was worth $150m. But that wasn’t the end of it as DraftKings tabled a competing $195m offer. True motives notwithstanding on DraftKings’ part, Fanatics was forced to up its bid to $225m, which was accepted in June.

One key reason for Fanatics increasing its offer was to get its hands on Banach Technology, a sportsbook supplier with proprietary risk management and trading models that PointsBet acquired for $43m in 2021. Also, Fanatics subsidiary Fanatics Betting and Gaming (FBG) could accelerate its digital plans and not have to spend tens of millions of dollars on upfront license fees and market-access costs. Since the deal, FBG has been transferring PointsBet customers to Fanatics Sportsbook, which is now available to 95% of the addressable US online sports betting market. Meanwhile, Fanatics Casino is live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with New Jersey to follow. In all, FBG will be in 20 states by the end of April.

Being part of the Fanatics ecosystem, which includes sports apparel, trading cards, and collectibles, means FBG can offer compelling rewards like ‘FanCash’ cashback. What’s more, the jersey giveaway for new customers at the start of the last NFL season for betting at least $50 proved especially popular.

“If you’ve been to a sporting event, you’ll see what fans will do for a free T-shirt — and that’s $8 — so imagine what they’ll do for a $150 jersey,” FBG CEO Matt King told EGR last December.

7. Rush Street Interactive (=)

• 5%: YOY increase in average revenue per monthly active user for US and Canada in 2023 
• 4: Years in a row RSI was named customer service operator of the year at EGR NA awards

Rush Street Interactive (RSI), the firm behind BetRivers and PlaySugarHouse, has been linked to multiple M&A rumors over the past few years but has seemingly never let the rumblings distract from the continued development of its key business verticals — and 2023 was no exception.

The first quarter of the year saw RSI expand its Squares sports betting product, which had proven popular among users in the traditional NFL format, to the NBA and college basketball, the latter just in time for March Madness. It later went on to roll out another innovative online sportsbook feature, a centralized hub for all player prop bets called Prop Central, prior to the 2023 NFL season. 

Headed up by a C-suite with more than 125 years of collective industry experience, RSI also devoted attention to fortifying its growing and sizable digital media wing, bringing aboard former ESPN and Fox Sports host Julie Stewart-Binks as the newest addition to its roster of content-creating brand ambassadors in late March.

The Chicago-based operator has always positioned itself as most focused on the igaming segment, so it should come as no surprise that its biggest moves were centered around online casino in 2023, headlined by the April launch of an online slot tournament in Michigan featuring a guaranteed $1m prize pool.

The cumulative business momentum was reflected in the company’s year-end earnings, as 2023 revenue totaled $691.2m, an increase of nearly 17% from its 2022 figures, while EBITDA amounted to $8.2m.

This could possibly be the last time RSI appears as a separate entry in the rankings after Bloomberg reported in March that the company was up for sale, with bosses pitching RSI to DraftKings.

8. Bet365 (13)

• 10: Number of states that bet365’s product is up and running in
• $50m: Handle bet365 generated in January in Ohio

A  major global player, bet365 had historically maintained a low profile across the regulated North American market, with the notable exception of its longstanding presence in Canada. However, the sleeping giant began to awaken in 2023 by embarking on a sustained period of expansion, resulting in a jump of five places in the rankings.

The pivot towards US growth included both launching in states that bet365 had previously gained licensure but had yet to activate, while also becoming more aggressive in securing new market-access deals.

Pennsylvania marked its first foray on the latter front when bet365 announced a partnership with Churchill Downs in January 2023 for online sports betting and igaming market access in the Keystone State. It was also potentially the most indicative of bet365’s larger US ambitions given the market’s maturity and hefty 36% tax rate.

Throughout the remainder of the year, bet365 forged similar market-access partnerships with Sandy’s Racing & Gaming in Kentucky, the Ak-Chin Indian Community in Arizona, and Hornets Sports & Entertainment in North Carolina. The gaming giant complemented its market-access push by bringing its online sportsbook to several other states, the first being Iowa last June, which marked its fifth operational jurisdiction. By November, that number had grown to seven after launches in Kentucky and Louisiana, respectively. As 2023 drew to a close, bet365 was gearing up to further bolster its Midwest presence by preparing to go live in Indiana.

Not to be lost in bet365’s clear emphasis on expansion in 2024 was the notable accolade it received on the product side when EKG released a comprehensive in-play betting report last summer that ranked bet365 top among 15 US apps in average speed between bet placement and confirmation.

9. Hard Rock Digital (=)

• 7: Number of US states Hard Rock Bet is live in   
• 4.9: Hard Rock Bet’s rating on the App Store from more than 74,000 reviews

While Hard Rock Digital (HRD) has quietly ascended to a solid second-tier operator across the regulated US industry, the brand became more widely known for the protracted legal battle that its owners, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, had been waging since 2021 for the right to offer online sports betting in the Sunshine State.    

That process came to a resolution in late 2023 following a series of legal victories for the Seminoles, the last of which took place in the Florida Supreme Court, formally paving the way for the return of mobile betting in Florida after a two-year hiatus.

Owing to legal challenges, a limited relaunch came first in early November ahead of a full rollout less than a month later.

However, the product, as well as the brand itself, were markedly different from the one Floridians had become familiar with back in 2021. Previously known as Hard Rock Sportsbook, a rebrand to Hard Rock Bet took place last July as part of a bigger migration to an in-house tech platform housing HRD’s sports betting and igaming products in one app.

HRD launched the fully integrated platform in New Jersey in August, allowing users there to access an omnichannel gaming experience encompassing its sportsbook, icasino, and rewards accounts, with the latter also tethered to the tribe’s Atlantic City property.

HRD ended the year by pouring more resources into its digital wing, naming former Flutter executive Martin Arthur as its new director of product operations in November. It then acquired free-to-play social game developer WGames in December and folded it into a new social gaming group called Hard Rock Games.

In late March, HRD generated headlines by swooping for 888’s US B2C assets in an undisclosed deal.

10. Bally’s Interactive (=)

• $112.6m: North America Interactive revenue for 2023 
• 26.9%: YOY increase in North America Interactive revenue for Q4 2023

Bally’s began what can best be classified as a year of transition by initiating a shake-up at the very top of its organizational structure, announcing in February 2023 that CEO Lee Fenton was stepping down and Robeson Reeves was taking his place.

The move, which saw Reeves transition from his role as president of Bally’s Interactive, was emblematic of what would become an emphasis on the digital side of the business in 2023. The first evidence of that shift came at the end of March, when Bally’s unveiled a wide-ranging multimedia partnership with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) that made the gaming operator the league’s exclusive fantasy and gaming partner.

An even larger transition followed in May, when Bally’s made the decision to move Bally Bet off its in-house tech stack built from the $125m acquisition of Bet.Works in 2021 in favor of Kambi’s sportsbook platform and White Hat Gaming’s PAM.

While the transition meant Bally Bet was offline for several months — a far from ideal but unavoidable situation — the new-look product was subsequently live in seven states by the end of 2023.

Bally’s then turned its attention to the icasino side, entering into a strategic partnership with live dealer supplier Stakelogic in July to augment its igaming offering in its home state of Rhode Island, where it serves as the sole igaming (slots and live dealer) operator.

Meanwhile, Standard General, the New York-based hedge fund and Bally’s largest shareholder, has offered to purchase the remaining stake in the operator that it does not own for $15 a share, valuing Bally’s at about $684m. However, this offer has been branded “woefully undervalued” by another shareholder, asset management firm K&F Growth Capital.  

11) Super Group (=)

Headline-making M&A defined the US online gaming space in 2023. While the parent company of Betway may not have disrupted the landscape as significantly as some other players (see Fanatics-PointsBet and ESPN-PENN), the global digital gaming company was nonetheless prominently involved on the acquisition front in its own right.     

Super Group began 2023 by completing its takeover of Digital Gaming Corporation (DGC), a milestone moment for the Europe-based operator given DGC’s sizable existing footprint in the US market via the Betway brand, which it had been licensing on an exclusive basis from Super Group. The acquisition coincided with Super Group’s board of directors authorizing a $25m share buyback program.  

Almost immediately following the close of the DGC acquisition and the share repurchase, Super Group announced the proposed sale of DGC’s non-core B2B assets to Games Global in February 2023 as part of an effort to focus on the growth of the B2C division of the company in the US. The deal with Games Global completed this February.

Super Group was simultaneously revving up the expansion engine. Upon online sports betting launches in Ohio and Louisiana in Q1, it had formally expanded the Betway brand to nine states of operation, with two of those — Pennsylvania and New Jersey — featuring full igaming offerings.

Despite its bullishness on the US market, Super Group could not turn a profit there in 2023, with US operational EBITDA losses amounting to €17.8m ($19m) in Q4 and €57.4m ($61m) over the full year.

12) Betfred USA (=)

Expansion was the name of the game for Betfred to kick off 2023. The UK-based operator hit the ground running with a handful of new state launches in succession over the first five weeks of the year, growing the number of US jurisdictions where it was operational from seven to 10 in the process, including eight with online sports betting.   

Ohio represented by far its biggest and splashiest launch, on New Year’s Day, as Betfred did its best to leverage the state’s universal go-live date by rolling out one of its more lucrative online acquisition offers, while staging a variety of activations in concert with the Cincinnati Bengals, its market-access partner, in an attempt to gain an early foothold in the Buckeye State.

Further, albeit less boisterous, launches followed in Virginia and Maryland by the beginning of February 2023, helping Betfred bolster its presence in the mid-Atlantic online market. By summer, it was initiating a different form of expansion in Iowa, reworking its partnership with Elite Resort Casino — which had opted to shutter its own online sportsbook — to take over branding of Elite’s retail sportsbooks with an eye toward a similar icasino arrangement if, and when, Iowa legalizes the vertical.

Despite the operational growth, Betfred struggled to translate it to market growth. This likely played a role in the organizational restructuring that took place in September, including the shrewd appointment of Kresimir Spajic as US CEO after the exit of US COO Bryan Bennett. The lack of ROI on Betfred’s expansion efforts was underscored by a 2023 revenue report released by the Ohio Casino Control Commission, which had Betfred holding less than 1% of market share in the state. 

13) Tipico (16)

Moving up three places after debuting in last year’s rankings, Tipico is live in Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, and New Jersey (including online casino), while a launch in Indiana is in the pipeline.

Germany’s betting giant, which is majority-owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, is another European brand that has struggled to resonate with bettors on this side of the pond, if the numbers in Ohio are any indication. Data by the Buckeye State’s regulator revealed Tipico held less than 1% of the market for February based on handle.

Despite this, it offers a solid, proprietary product built from nearly two decades of experience. In fact, Tipico regularly ranks in the top 10 of EKG’s sportsbook app testing reports and even managed to outperform established US names to take top spot on its debut in EKG’s casino app testing report, published in September.

Meanwhile, the firm announced the Fair Play Pledge in February to increase education around responsible gambling (RG) and foster transparency and trust with users. A month later, Tipico launched the ‘Check your game’ RG ad campaign. The pledge and efforts around RG led to Tipico being awarded accreditation by the Internet Compliance Assessment Program, the first sportsbook in the US to secure such recognition.

Tipico also rolled out its rewards program with up to 5% cashback on parlays, which it claims is the highest in the industry. Players can also get 3% cashback on straight bets.

14) SuperBook (NEW)

Boasting the world’s largest sportsbook — the 30,000 sq ft SuperBook at the Westgate Las Vegas — SuperBook has made its debut in the EGR US Power Rankings after gradually expanding its online footprint across the US.  

Backed by legendary oddsmakers Jay Kornegay and John Murray, SuperBook first entered the digital realm in 2020 with its Colorado launch. Today, it can be found in a total of nine states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia. 

Maryland and Virginia were added to IGT-powered SuperBook’s roster of states since last year’s edition of the rankings, with the Maryland launch coming in April 2023, and the rollout of the website and apps in Virgina occurring in October. The next step on the expansion journey is the release of SuperBook in Indiana and Louisiana.

Upon achieving a footprint across a dozen states, SuperBook will have established itself as a credible tier-two sports betting brand, although more work is needed to increase market share. In Ohio, for instance, the brand accounted for 0.09% of the market in February based on handle, while revenue was in the red.  

15) Wynn Interactive (8)

A significant player in the brick-and-mortar casino space, Wynn Resorts has had a complicated relationship with the burgeoning online segment.

After terminating a SPAC merger that would have taken Wynn Interactive public in 2021 and reportedly looking to sell the division at a discount in 2022, Wynn began 2023 with a renewed focus on digital. Bolstered by the still-glistening Encore Boston Harbor that opened its doors just prior to the pandemic, Wynn took full advantage of the online opportunity in Massachusetts, which officially rolled out mobile sports betting in early March 2023.

Wynn was one of a handful of operators on the starting line and had the added benefit of its $2.6bn property in the heart of Boston as an organic driver of online acquisition. The trajectory of its digital business remained pointed up heading into the summer, with Wynn launching both its online sportsbook and igaming products in West Virginia in June. It followed that by debuting its revamped app — which was already live in Massachusetts and West Virginia — in six other states in August.

But less than a month later, Wynn said it would cease online operations in eight of its 12 markets, the exceptions being Nevada, Massachusetts, New York, and Michigan, albeit with the caveat that the latter two would remain under strategic review. In February, Wynn sold its Michigan igaming operations to Caesars Entertainment.

The downsizing of WynnBet was the precursor to a year-end earnings report highlighted by a $276.6m loss for Wynn Interactive and a subsequent $94.5m write-off for “goodwill impairment and intangible assets” — which marked the beginning of the end for the division.

16) BetPARX (NEW)

Having slipped to 17th place in 2022, betPARX missed out entirely in 2023. But the Pennsylvania-based company makes its return in 2024 due in no small part to its launch in Maryland last August. This brought the total number of states that the gaming-first company operates in to five, alongside Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Several new partnerships were announced in 2023, including an industry-first deal with supplier Epoxy.ai in June to launch SmartPicks, which offers one-to-one personalization for players including unique bet suggestions. In July, a new deal was inked with gaming provider White Hat Studios to supply betPARX with a suite of games in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan.

In October, a multi-state content aggregation deal was struck with EveryMatrix that involved SlotMatrix providing the operator with its library of content.

This January, Matthew Cullen, betPARX’s senior VP of igaming and sports, left after five years with the Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment-owned operator, having overseen the market launches in the aforementioned five states.

Cullen, who was the online division’s first employee, said on LinkedIn that under his leadership betPARX grew to more than 140 staff and had surpassed $100m in revenue. Big shoes to fill.

17) Kindred Group (14)

A household name in Scandinavia with Unibet for more than two decades, Kindred Group made a concerted effort to expand its reach to the US market, establishing a HQ in New York in 2019 before rolling out Unibet across multiple states over the years.

Despite minimal progress, Kindred continued to forge ahead while developing an in-house tech stack for the US. That process culminated in 2023, with the rollout of its proprietary platform, first in New Jersey in April, then Pennsylvania in July.

However, that proved to be the final salvo for the Swedish operator’s stateside ambitions, with Kindred’s board initiating a strategic review not long after the New Jersey launch. A merger or sale of the business were considered as options.

Kindred officially announced its North American exit in late November — a decision that included a global headcount reduction of more than 300 — citing a need to reallocate resources toward its existing core markets.

The company expects to be out of North America by the end of Q2 2024, while longstanding US chief Manuel Stan will move to Catena Media in July, which means this will be the last year Kindred Group features in the rankings.

Coming back to the strategic review, Kindred’s most significant news of the past 12 months came in February, when French gaming giant Française des Jeux tabled a $2.8bn public tender offer for the operator.

18) Mohegan Sun (17)

The biggest success story to come out of Mohegan Sun over the past year is the strides its online brand, Mohegan Digital, made over the fiscal year 2023 up until the end of September. 

The operator reported that NGR for fiscal year 2022 for its digital arm amounted to $23.6m. By the end of the next financial year, this figure had rocketed 326% to $100.6m. The firm attributed this surge to its igaming operations in Connecticut, where it has been live since 2021, as well as the revenue generated in Ontario.

There was a major C-suite departure this year as Carol Anderson stepped down as CFO in March. She had been with the tribal gaming operator since March 2021 when she joined from Scientific Games. That announcement came in October 2023 but it took until March 11 to confirm her replacement: Ari Glazer. After more than two decades in investment banking, he will officially begin his role at Mohegan in May.

Glazer spent 20 years at Citibank, where he was most recently MD and global head of gaming and hospitality client coverage.

19) 888 Holdings (15)

The London-listed firm makes its final appearance in the rankings after confirming, in March, the sale of its US B2C assets to Hard Rock Digital, due to complete in Q4, for an undisclosed fee.

The disposal brought a swift conclusion to a strategic review initiated at the start of the month as 888 CEO Per Widerström looks to shift the focus to the core markets of the UK, Spain, Denmark, and Italy. The firm said it expects to realize a recurring annualized benefit to adjusted EBITDA of about £25m ($31m) from 2025 onwards following the US B2C exit.

The decision to leave the US will also see the withdrawal of 888 Casino from New Jersey and the end of 888’s relationship with Authentic Brands Group’s Sports Illustrated, through which it licensed the brand for SI Sportsbook and SI Casino. Management confirmed a payment totaling $50m across two tranches would bring the chapter to a close.

888’s US B2C withdrawal came after the SI brand struggled to make an impact, with EKG estimating SI Sportsbook’s US market share to be well below 1% based on GGR, despite being live in Colorado, Michigan, and Virginia.

888 has been in the US as a B2C operator since 2013, when New Jersey regulated online casino and poker, although it has been confirmed that B2B operations will be retained, namely the long-standing partnership with Caesars Entertainment.

20) Delaware North (NEW)

Sneaking in at 20th is a new entrant in the shape of Delaware North.  

Based in Buffalo, New York, the global hospitality giant first entered the digital arena in 2018 with mobile sportsbook BetLucky. However, the product was soon pulled in its only state, West Virginia, as a legal dispute ensued with its tech partners at the time — an ignominious end to the BetLucky brand.

Despite the setback, Delaware North went on to launch a new product, Betly, in partnership with IGT. But in 2022, the challenger mobile sportsbook was transitioned to Gamewise — tech developed as part of a JV with Belgian operator and supplier GAMING1. That year, Gamewise-powered Betly was released in Arkansas and Tennessee. Then in August 2023, Betly Sportsbook and Betly Casino were launched in West Virginia, a state where Delaware North owns and operates the Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras casinos. Delaware North has skin in the game in Ohio, too, although not with Betly. Instead, the company operates MVGBet, also powered by Gamewise. That’s because MVGBet stands for Miami Valley Gaming, a JV between Delaware North and Churchill Downs. MVGBet is another operator holding a tiny sliver of the Ohio market: 0.03% of total handle for February. 

Ones to watch

Prime Sports

The duo behind Prime Sports — industry veteran Joe Brennan Jr and Plannatech COO Adam Bjorn — believe their offering can fill a gap in US sports betting by delivering back-to-basics bookmaking. There’s no flashy marketing or gimmicky giveaways with Prime Sports; it’s about simply offering the highest limits, reduced juice, and not limiting or banning sharp bettors — à la Circa Sports or certain offshore books. Despite online sports betting being legal in more than 30 US jurisdictions, anecdotal evidence suggests plenty of dyed-in-the-wool bettors with access to legal options still gamble offshore. Prime Sports very much sees this cohort as its target audience. The operator made its debut in September by launching in Ohio. This was followed by New Jersey in early April, while plans are afoot to expand to Kentucky. 

Underdog Sportsbook 

Established in 2020, Underdog Fantasy mushroomed into a leading season-long fantasy sports and DFS platform. It probably helped that founder Jeremy Levine previously sold a successful DFS startup of his, Draft, to Paddy Power Betfair. Having built an especially strong brand and product in the fantasy sports space with Underdog  Fantasy, Levine and his team have been busy of late orchestrating a foray into sports betting to cash in on the customer overlap between both verticals. After three years of crafting its own tech platform, Underdog Sportsbook was unleashed in North Carolina in March just as the market went live with a concurrent launch. Levine hailed it a “new and modern sports betting experience” at the time. “Underdog Sportsbook is built for today’s American sports fan,” he stated. Now they just have to deliver on that pledge.

Crab Sports

With FanDuel and DraftKings dominating the digital US sports betting landscape, some operators have adopted a position of trying to connect with bettors via a localized brand rather than going up against the big players in multiple states. One such bookmaker is Crab Sports, accompanied by its distinctive branding: a 2D logo of a decapod crustacean.

Founded in 2021, Crab Sports, which is powered by Gaming Innovation Group’s platform, has been live in Maryland — a seafood hotbed — since 2023 with the aim of delivering a “truly local” experience. Besides a management team with 20-plus years of igaming experience, one of Crab Sports’ investors is Simon Collins, an industry veteran and co-founder of Slingo supplier Gaming Realms.