SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Nevada Gambling Commission (NGC) has unanimously recommended that Entain be granted a licence to operate in the state, the historic heartland of US gaming. 
Publishing its February agenda yesterday, the Commission revealed that it had assessed the suitability of key Entain board members, including CEO Jette Nygaard-Anderson.
Also supporting the application were Joseph Simon (Chief Information and Technology Officer), Robert Hoskin (Chief Governance Officer) and Robert Matthew Wood (Chief Financial Officer).
As BetMGM – Entain’s joint venture with MGM Resorts – is an active sportsbook in Nevada, NGC’s decision will likely come in the form of adding Entain executives to BetMGM’s existing licence.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the company was quizzed about the £17m ($20.4m) regulatory penalty imposed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) in August of last year.
However, Nevada regulators appear to have been satisfied by the efforts Entain has made in social responsibility and anti-money laundering policies and practices, particularly regarding its relationship with BetMGM.
In its own response to the UKGC charge six months ago, Entain noted that the failures which led to the enforcement action had taken place before October 2020, almost a year prior to the launch of its ARC responsible gambling system and other policies.
Securing a licence in one of the US’ biggest betting and gaming states, as the historic home of legalised gambling and casinos in the country, is a major step in Entain’s US rollout.
Recent updates from the NGC shows that Nevada remains one of the most prominent markets in the US, having recorded GGR of $15bn throughout the whole of 2022.
Meanwhile, the NFL proved that sports betting is also a big earner in the state, with Super Bowl wagers for local sportsbooks standing at $153m this year.
Entain’s history in the US so far has been defined by the aforementioned BetMGM joint-venture with MGM Resorts. BetMGM is an online sportsbook live in multiple states including New Jersey, New York, Louisiana, Illinois, Ontario, Kansas, Ohio and Maryland.
Talk about Entain’s stateside activity lately has been defined by rumours of a potential takeover by its US partner, although potential offers by MGM have been withdrawn twice, with the first of £8.1bn in 2021 rejected by the FTSE100 group.
In a recent update, MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle asserted ‘for now, the answer is no, not with Entain’, suggesting that the company has at least temporarily dropped its interest in acquiring its London-based European partner.
