As Americans become more comfortable with regulated sports betting the parlay has emerged as one of their most popular betting options. That love of a string of connected wagers has been great news for operators like BetMGM, who announced in a recent earnings call that they’ve seen a 200 percent increase in NFL parlays this season as compared to 2023.
MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle told investors gathered for a Q3 2024 earnings call that after just eight weeks of play, NFL parlays were seeing land rush business. He went on to point out how that’s impacted the company’s ability to invest in other, newer products saying, “We’ve said and we still believe this, particularly with the new product lineup coming into the third and fourth quarter for football that 2024 was going to be an investment year. I think the new product…and I call out our friends and Entain that ultimately deliver this for us…t has done what it needed to do. It is faster.Our parlays are up a couple of hundred basis points, as I indicated earlier. Our retention is up, which we think is positive. The top line — the very top line of GGR is up close to 20% for the quarter. And so we find ourselves continuing to want to invest to grow the top line.”
Hornbuckle also used the call to let investors know that its MGM Interactive unit, which runs LeoVegas, is done acquiring new businesses for a while and that the company will not be buying its partner Entain anytime soon. BetMGM has emerged as a major player in the US sports betting market in 2024 and is looking to carry that momentum into 2025.