Q&A: BetMGM's CRO says firm won’t chase market share for the sake of it

Entering his sixth year with BetMGM, chief revenue officer (CRO) Matt Prevost has witnessed a great deal of change during his time at the company. Initially hired as chief marketing officer, Prevost has seen BetMGM – the JV between MGM Resorts International and Entain – grow into one of the leading lights in the US online gambling industry.

In 2024, a period repeatedly described by MGM and Entain leadership teams as a “year of investment,” the Jersey City-based omnichannel operator took crucial steps to put itself on a trajectory of upward growth across different parts of the business.

Following Entain’s $266m acquisition of sports modeling supplier Angstrom Sports in 2023, BetMGM set about integrating the technology into its sportsbook, providing a much-needed upgrade to its same game parlay product (SGP) and live play props offering. Last September, the operator sealed a major deal with US media giant and USA Today parent company Gannett, allowing its odds and betting information to be incorporated across the network’s programming and content.

By the second half of the year, BetMGM found itself in a healthy financial position, especially for igaming; the Q3 results showed a record quarter for the vertical, including a 70% increase in first-time depositors. There has also been “strong” cross-sell from the NFL to online casino. Overall, BetMGM’s year-on-year GGR growth of 18% in Q3 was attributed to “improved product and increased investment in player acquisition”.

With 2025 barely a month old, BetMGM struck a deal with media company Fremantle to secure the intellectual property (IP) rights to iconic US gameshows The Price is Right and Family Feud. This will allow the operator to create “customized” online casino content, while Prevost suggested the deal presents a “unique opportunity” for BetMGM, giving it the chance to flip the traditional supplier/IP paradigm on its head and venture into new horizons.

EGR North America (EGR): Entering your sixth year with the business, how has BetMGM evolved in that time?

Matt Prevost (MP): Scale. We started with 30 people and now we have 2,000. Everything associated with that type of scale, such as a bigger organization, multiple states and regulators, new products, new sports, new tax rates – they all change. It’s just been an incredible journey.

I joined [when we were] a company called ROAR Digital and we were marketing in one state with a brand called playMGM, and we had a Borgata brand, too. Now we’re BetMGM, we have a brand that’s featured on national media, featured [actor] Jamie Foxx, and we’ve run a Super Bowl ad. We’ve had an incredible run.

EGR: Do you see things continuing on a similar trajectory?

MP: I think the industry this year has made a pivot towards an expectation of profit. So, you’ll see more companies head towards more of a long-term sustainable business model. We’re increasingly looking at things like tax and other opportunities in front of us to try and figure out how to best match our offering and those tax regimes in individual states. I think we’re going to see a lot of growth in the future. We need a few more gaming states to come across, and we expect Missouri and a few more sports states go live this year.

EGR: Has last year’s long-awaited integration of Angstrom Sports delivered the expected results so far?

MP: We’re increasingly more competitive. The integration has taken some time, and we are looking in the spring to bring more of that out to consumers than we have in the past. Angstrom powers our same game parlay offering – a product that wouldn’t be possible without the Angstrom model. A big part of our improved casual GGR margin is a function of that capability.

It’s taken some time to get the integration right, but we’re through the heavy lifting. Our customers can look forward to seeing more parlay capabilities in the future, and they will see more novelty-type bets enabled through Angstrom’s unique algorithms.

EGR: How has the integration impacted margins and the range of markets BetMGM can offer to compete with FanDuel and DraftKings?

MP: We still have a way to go. The integration has taken some time, but the good news is we know what to do, and we have the capabilities now and large enough technical teams to bring that capability on board.

EGR: How much impact has the Gannett media partnership had so far and will you look to secure more agreements like it going forward?

MP: We look at all our media partnerships as having both a brand impact and having a direct player acquisition impact. As we increasingly turn our attention towards player retention, where we were in ‘go, go, go acquisition mode’ previously, we’re now looking at content partnerships like Gannett or [New York Times-owned] The Athletic as sources of information for sports bettors.

They’re [consumers] seeking out information and opinions in places like The Athletic, Yahoo and other media partners. We’re turning our attention to more of those retention-based opportunities. You’ll see from many operators a deeper content integration where the content featured in an article has direct links that send customers to sports betting opportunities.

EGR: BetMGM estimated its market share in Q3 to be around the 15% mark, allowing for a 22% market share for igaming and 8% for online sports betting. Is this where the company expected to be?

MP: Realistically, we are pursuing market leadership that is sustainable. We’re not going to chase market share for the sake of market share. We think we can build an incredibly valuable, profitable company, which you’ll hear more about in our full-year update on February 4. We think we can build a profitable, sustainable company in sports and igaming.

EGR: The third quarter of 2024 saw record igaming revenue for the company. What drove that?

MP: We put in place much more segmented offers, a much more tailored product, and promotional experience for our players. We’ve also introduced more content, exclusive content, and we have more free-to-play games and engagement-type games that we haven’t had in the past. So, I think it’s a combination of those things. Our gaming and operations team really did a terrific job in the last six months and we’re seeing the benefits and momentum now in the market as a result.

EGR: Was that type of product shift always part of the plan?

MP: Its more to do with market maturity and organizational maturity. It’s similar to many company lifecycles in that they become more refined in their promotional strategy and more refined in their segmentation. You’re seeing that with us and, frankly, you’re seeing it from our competitors.

EGR: How sustainable is the 70% increase in first-time depositors from Q3?

MP: We’ll see, like we have in every other developed market over time, a pivot towards retention. There are only so many players in New Jersey and Michigan. We’re increasingly introducing the brand to new segments of the market that we hadn’t targeted previously. Over time, it makes logical sense that as the market matures, we’re going to be more focused on retention.

EGR: How will BetMGM look to maintain its strong cross-sell performance once the NFL is over?

MP: There is a subset of our player base who have their highest active days on those NFL Sundays, but we see an active base of customers in all our sports. A lot of the tactics we use to cross-sell from sports into gaming are still going to be just as relevant for someone watching baseball as it is for someone interested in football.

A lot of the refinements we put in place during the NFL season get carried over on site and in CRM into whatever the next sport is, even if the absolute number of players isn’t the same. The beauty of the NFL season, because it’s not on every day, is that it allows you to naturally get a clear picture for the week based on a few days of information and then refine those strategies over time.

The NBA, which is on every day, in some ways is more difficult because you have individual match-ups that may play a factor and it’s hard to predict what’s on national TV, so it’s just harder to normalize. We find that you can refine your tactics through your marketing strategies, through the NFL season, apply that year-round, and go back and do it again.

EGR: How crucial could the partnership with Fremantle prove to be going forward?

MP: Freemantle is a unique opportunity for us. We have he Price is Right and Family Feud, and a deep, integrated relationship with Fremantle. This for us is a bit of a watershed moment because we have an opportunity to take terrific IP and find the best game suppliers for that idea.  

Most of our other partnerships are started with an individual relationship with a game supplier. Typically, those game suppliers then secure that IP. In this case, we’ve secured the IP and it’s going to be up to us to find the best gaming suppliers for that IP. We’ve reversed things, and it’s our first time doing something at that scale. It’s a big, deep, meaningful relationship for both Fremantle and for BetMGM. It’ll be interesting to see if we do more of this.”

EGR: With rivals deploying M&A to boost their igaming offerings, how is BetMGM responding to regain its place as market leader?

MP: Our greatest advantage is our link back to MGM Resorts. We’re just scratching the surface of what we can do to join up play with our land-based customers. Those things include integrating content, such as seeing a title on the floor of a casino and then seeing that title online with our brand.

It includes poker tournaments, cross-sell from hosted players at MGM to hosted players at BetMGM. It includes database mining and all kinds of different strategies you might employ with digital marketing. We are only five or six years in, just scratching the surface of what we can do with MGM Resorts. As I look ahead to our gaming strategies, deeper integration with MGM Resorts is our point of difference and it will be key to what we do in the future.

EGR: Are there any markets across the US that you see as a growth opportunity this year?

MP: Each state is its own set of unique circumstances and opportunities. I’m optimistic we’ll see Missouri and [Canada’s] Alberta legalize at some point. I’d love to see a big state or two come across the finish line in terms of sports betting, and I’m really curious to see what happens to the world of igaming.

We have a number of states with  competing interests in igaming. The evidence is clear that when you have igaming in a state, there are meaningful tax revenues, and it’s a counter to the sweepstakes business which is not paying any tax.

EGR: With tax rates increasing in certain states and hikes on the table elsewhere, such as doubling the rate to 30% proposed by the governor in Maryland, how do you adjust your strategy?

MP: Over the last five years, we were focused on growth and launching in new states, [but] as our business and the industry has become mature, we’re increasingly tailoring the offering and the level of promotional intensity to individual states based on economics. The challenge we all face as an industry is where we have tax that is prohibitively expensive, we find ourselves increasingly in a situation where the offshore, illegal, unregulated market becomes more and more attractive to customers.

We’re looking to strike a balance with our regulators to form  a sustainable business model for all those involved. By making the illegal offshore market a more attractive option, you have these sweepstake options and other business models that, frankly, don’t have any player protection.

They don’t have any investments in responsible gaming, they don’t have any type of self-exclusion or other positive aspects where the regulator plays a role. If you put player interests first, you tend to end up in a logical place where all sides are comfortable and supportive of the industry – that’s the type of partnership we have in some states.