Gavin Isaacs: Don’t underestimate US casino giants in sports betting race

Former Scientific Games CEO Gavin Isaacs has warned European operators not to underestimate US legacy casino operators in the race for dominance in the nascent online sports betting market.

Speaking to EGR last week, Isaacs was asked whether his recent departure from Sci Games and appointment as non-executive chairman for SBTech was reflective of his expectations for the winners and losers in the market.

“Don’t underestimate the big sprawling beasts,” Isaacs said. “They’re going to be large players. The switch was just because I’ve done it [run land-based operators] before and it’s hard work. Very hard work. Having done Sci Games, and Ballys, and SHFL, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do another one. But I do believe those companies will play a huge role going forward.

The US casino giants like Caesars and MGM have been somewhat slow off the mark in New Jersey, with the market currently being led by the former DFS duo of PPB’s FanDuel and Kambi-powered DraftKings.

“DraftKings has had a nice start but those other brands have lots of power,” Isaacs added. “They can be a little slow to react but when they do get their strategy together and start executing I think they’ll be incredibly powerful.

“Ask anyone around the world to name one brand associated with casinos and most will come up with Caesars. It would be very difficult to screw that brand up I would have thought.”

Isaacs is currently on a three-week tour of SBTech’s European offices and operations, culminating at ICE.