Risky Online Sportsbook Business
Published: Thursday, September 14, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
RISKY ONLINE SPORTSBOOK BUSINESS
Bold online sportsbook marketers throw the dice on .net sites
It takes a bold company to go into high profile sportsbook marketing campaigns in the US these days, with the uncertain legal climate and overseas executives being unceremoniously bundled into jail cells, but BetUS management is not letting that deter them.
According to the Boston media, the Costa Rica-based sportsbook has "....unleashed a marketing blitz on Boston, slapping up billboards beckoning bettors to bet on the Patriots, even as Congress considers a ban on online wagering. Billboards touting BetUS.net have sprung up in South Boston, Chinatown, Brockton and Bridgewater in recent weeks as part of the company's push to lure more bettors at the start of football season."
The National Football League is a strong supporter of Washington attempts to ban online gambling, making the sport a particularly sensitive area.
BetUS is a full-service online sportsbook operated by LT Baroda in Costa Rica under a Kahnawake license, but the BetUS.net site is a "marketing" site that does not offer real money gambling or links to the operational site. Up until now this has been a widely used ploy to market the brand of online gambling operations with impunity, because the site advertised does not actually offer gambling per se.
The latest moves are clearly part of a major advertising push by the sportsbook company into the uncertain US market - the local BetUS ads come just weeks after the company signed a $1.3 million deal to run plugs on Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite radio show.
Company officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment by AP.
The legality of Internet gambling remains a gray area nationally and in Massachusetts, which has no specific laws against online wagering.
But the real reason for opposition to Internet betting may lie in the competitive threat it presents to influential interests like horse racing. BetUS.com gives gamblers generous kickbacks of 15 percent to 50 percent of the money they bet on sports, casino games and horse racing. Local racetrack owners say the unregulated online casinos are unfairly cutting into their business, which is strictly monitored by the state.
"The tracks are in no position to rebate anyone 10 percent," said Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park owner George Carney. "It's one thing to run a bookie operation and something else entirely to run a legitimate racetrack. It's tough competition."
