US gambling stocks slide after Covid-19 outbreak among MLB players
Positive tests raise prospect of baseball’s abbreviated 2020 season being postponed just days after it began
Shares in leading listed US gambling companies have fallen after more than a dozen players and coaches for MLB side the Miami Marlins were reported to have tested positive for Covid-19.
DraftKings stock tumbled by 6.5%, while Penn National Gaming shed 5.5% and MGM Resorts saw its shares decline by 5.3%. Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands slipped by 3.7% and 1.98% respectively.
As of yesterday, 14 individuals with the Marlins had tested positive in Philadelphia, where they played three games against the Phillies.
The Phillies were set to begin a four-game series against the New York Yankees, but the first game, due to take place in Philadelphia, has been cancelled. The Marlins’ home opener against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday was also scrapped.
The situation has raised doubts that MLB can continue with its truncated season, which only got under way last week – more than three months after it was initially scheduled to start.
Basketball’s NBA and ice hockey’s NHL, which have both quarantined players and staff, are due to commence play this week.
None of the NHL’s 800-plus players have tested positive for Covid-19, the league has said, although a small number of NBA athletes have contracted the disease.
If one or more of the major leagues is forced to postpone or axe their seasons altogether it would clearly be a blow for US sportsbooks after months of being forced to rely on obscure sports like table tennis and darts.
Sports betting turnover in New Jersey hit an all-time low in April of $55m, down from $540m in January, but the industry made a slight recovery to $165m in June as sport began to return.
As of Monday afternoon, the US had more four million confirmed cases of Covid-19, representing 1.2% of the population.