Bill Richmond

BlueBet Secures Market Access for Online Sports Betting in Arizona

Published

3 years ago

August 11, 2021

BlueBet’s wholly-owned subsidiary BlueBet Arizona LLC has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) and BlueWater Resort & Casino, a wholly-owned instrumentality of the CRIT to pursue online sports betting market access in Arizona.

Online sports betting in Arizona was legalized in April 2021 by Governor Doug Ducey with an expected launch date of 9 September 2021, to coincide with the start of the NFL season. The Sports Wagering Act allows up to 20 Sportsbooks to operate in Arizona, with these licenses being split between professional sports teams/sites and the state’s tribal casinos.

Bill Richmond, CEO of BlueBet, said: “We’re very excited to be announcing this agreement within two months of BlueBet’s IPO. We see Arizona as a fantastic next step for BlueBet in the US. The opportunity is particularly advantageous because Arizona is such an unpenetrated market, with no existing operators despite it being a state of sports fanatics.

“Arizona’s population is twice that of Iowa, where we have our first US skin and where the sports betting market is estimated to have gaming revenue worth more than a billion US dollars per year, so this agreement represents a significant escalation in our push into the US.

European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

“We hadn’t originally considered Arizona as a first mover state in our US expansion but our strategy in the US is to be continuously proactively seeking out new opportunities like this to grow our footprint swiftly to take full advantage of this unique green field prospect.

“We will look to continue to build on this momentum as we seek market access in more US states and move to our B2B Sportsbook-as-a-Solution model long term.”

Bill Richmond

ClutchBet Goes Live in Third US State, with Licence Granted in Louisiana

Published

10 months ago

February 1, 2024

GamingAmericas.com

clutchbet-goes-live-in-third-us-state,-with-licence-granted-in-louisiana

Mobile-first online wagering provider, BlueBet Holdings Ltd, announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, BlueBet Louisiana LLC, has been licenced to operate in Louisiana under its ClutchBet B2C brand and has taken its first bets.

Louisiana is ClutchBet’s third US B2C state, with the brand already live in Iowa and Colorado, continuing the Company’s “Capital Lite” US market entry strategy.

ClutchBet will continue its successful hyper-localised marketing strategy in Louisiana, including sponsorship and activations which are delivering economic growth in other states.

With the addition of Louisiana, ClutchBet now has access to a combined population of over 14 million people, with a clear path to profitability in each of its initial markets as the Company executes its B2C strategy.

The multijurisdictional capability of the “BlueBet Global Platform” provides scalability benefits and enable faster B2C rollouts in each new market.

BlueBet continues to make good progress toward the second stage of its US market entry, the launch of a white-labelled B2B Sportsbook-as-a-Solution offer. This offer will be key to reaching scale and profitability in the US, and discussions are ongoing with multiple potential B2B partners.

BlueBet Chief Executive Officer, Bill Richmond, said: “Going live in Louisiana, our third US state, caps off another strong 12 months for BlueBet, as we execute our ‘Capital Lite’ US market entry.

“As we land and expand in each new US state, we continue to refine and enhance our approach, which is delivering faster growth and making us even more capital efficient. This is further enabled by our proprietary ‘BlueBet Global Platform’, which provides unique scalability and multijurisdictional capabilities.

“This launch brings us closer to completion of the first stage of our ‘Capital-Lite’ US market entry strategy, as discussions progress with multiple potential partners for our white labelled B2B Sportsbook-as-a-Solution offering.

“I would like to thank our partners in Louisiana, the Rubico Acquisition Corporation, owner of Louisiana Downs casino and horseracing track, for choosing to partner with BlueBet.”

Bill Richmond

ClutchBet Appoints Joshua Auriemma as VP of Engineering

Published

2 years ago

November 22, 2022

GamingAmericas.com

ClutchBet has appointed Joshua Auriemma as its new Vice President of Engineering.

An industry-leader in building and scaling sportsbooks, Josh joins Clutchbet from Penn Interactive, the online subsidiary of Penn Entertainment. At Penn Interactive he served as VP, Head of Engineering, building the team that engineered the Barstool Sportsbook & Casino from a non-existent product to a top-of-the-line sportsbook & casino app currently live in 13 states. Josh grew Penn’s engineering department from a team of one to over 300 engineers across multiple disciplines.

At Penn, Josh oversaw all engineering teams related to the Barstool Sportsbook & Casino product as well as loyalty integrations with sportsbook retail kiosks in over 20 retail locations.

Prior to joining Penn to build its sportsbook products and division, Josh was a Senior Software Engineer at The Meet Group where he redesigned advertising libraries to allow for the integration of its advertising networks and third-party libraries into the company’s portfolio apps. He also worked for Warner Bros. Digital Labs where he led the DramaFever iOS vertical as well as working with Warner Bros. corporate to create digital libraries that were used for video streaming in its portfolio of direct-to-consumer streaming apps.

“Josh designed and built both the infrastructure and team behind one of the most recognizable sportsbooks in the US and to bring him and his expertise to ClutchBet as we expand in the States is incredible and a sign of how seriously we’re taking our US expansion. Josh knows how to build sportsbooks that appeal to US bettors and believes in the vision and strategy behind ClutchBet in the US,” Bill Richmond, CEO of BlueBet, said.

“ClutchBet is at the beginning of an exciting journey in the US and I am looking forward to being part of a growing and disruptive business. While still a new business in the States, ClutchBet has decades of knowhow in growing and running sportsbooks internationally and I’m looking forward to an exchange of ideas as we look to build something special and lasting in the US,” Joshua Auriemma said.

Bill Richmond

BlueBet Secures Market Access in Fourth US State

Published

2 years ago

July 1, 2022

GamingAmericas.com

BlueBet Holdings Ltd has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary BlueBet Indiana LLC has signed an online market access agreement with Horseshoe Casino – Hammond, a 400,000 square-foot casino located in Hammond, Indiana owned by global casino giant Caesars Entertainment.

The market access agreement is BlueBet’s fourth in the US and will enable BlueBet to operate a new online sportsbook in Indiana under its ClutchBet B2C brand (pending regulatory approval and licensing). The agreement has an initial 10-year term.

BlueBet Chief Executive Officer, Bill Richmond, commented: “We are excited to announce our agreement with Horseshoe Hammond, part of the Caesars Entertainment stable, to secure market access in Indiana, one of the US’s major sporting markets.

“BlueBet now has market access in four U.S. states, which provides a strong platform to roll out our B2C brand, ClutchBet, and demonstrate the capability of our technology and team to run profitable sportsbooks in the US.

“There is no shortage of opportunities for further B2C expansion in the US, but our focus and capital are pointed firmly towards executing in our initial four states as we seek partners for our Sportsbook-as-a-Solution B2B offer.

“The size of the opportunity in the US continues to grow with Americans having bet $125 billion on sports in the four years since legalization. With many more states still to come online we could not be more convinced that our differentiated B2B offer is the best approach to access this opportunity in a disciplined and purposeful manner.

“We are well funded to execute our Capital Lite U.S. market entry strategy and remain highly confident in our ability to capture this huge market opportunity.”