Bally's Shifting to Kambi Technology, Hopes to Beef Up Online Sports Betting Presence

Bally Bet is temporarily shutting down to shift from its in-house technology suite in favor of the Kambi Group PLC and White Hat Gaming.
Reduced Juice Sportsbooks

Rhode Island-based Bally's Corp and its disappointing online sports betting product Bally Bet is taking the drastic step of ceasing all retail and mobile U.S. operations temporarily. During its closure, Bally Bet will shift away from an in-house technology suite in favor of the Kambi Group PLC and White Hat Gaming, which have powered some of the best sports betting apps in the U.S. market, including DraftKings, Penn National Gaming (Barstool), and Rush Street Interactive.

“We are very excited to have entered into long-term agreements with both Kambi and White Hat - two of the world’s most established and trusted gaming technology companies. Kambi provides an award-winning sportsbook that delivers unrivaled sports betting entertainment,” Bally’s CEO Robeson Reeves said of the merger.

The move toward Kambi and White Hat technology is expected to help the struggling sports betting brand to mitigate some costs, improve its overall betting experience, and ultimately help grow the brand to become a global wagering entity.

When it all takes place

On Thursday, June 22, Bally Bet Sportsbook will stop taking wagers in all but one of the states it has a presence in. The sports betting product in Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, Virginia, and New York will shut down June 30 for a few weeks at least, with the hopes of having the Kambi platform integrated with the Bally Bet name throughout the slow summer sports betting months.

June 30 will be the deadline for customers to withdraw funds from their current Bally's account. Users who fail to meet the deadline will have a check mailed to them shortly thereafter.

Arizona will apparently be untouched during the switchover process.

Admission of a mistake?

Bally Bet was one of the more aggressive sports betting companies with regard to the expansion of its brand during the evolution of the legal sports betting industry in the American market.

The company acquired Bet.Works for $125 million in June 2021 and powered its Bally Bet product with the Bet.Works platform, a move that has not panned out for Bally's Corp.

Reeves said: “On sports, we recognize that the Bet.Works acquisition did not give us the platform required to develop a competitive product.”

Despite being one of the more recognizable names in the American gambling industry, an accompanying television network that broadcasts a host of sporting events, and a retail and online gambling presence around the country, Bally Bet has failed to gain much traction at all in the exploding U.S. market.

Bet.Works simply wasn't the technology product that Bally's envisioned when purchasing the online sports betting platform.

Just how bad was it?

Bally Bet's place among the best sports betting sites has been characterized by one underwhelming month after another.

In New York, for example, Bally Bet has combined for a $16 million total handle and $1 million in total revenue since launching nearly a year ago. The Empire State almost guarantees monthly handles of $1 billion - Bally Bet accounts for an average of $1.5 million of those monthly totals. The big providers in that jurisdiction (FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, and BetMGM), surpass that amount every week of operation.

In Arizona, Bally Bet has made up just 0.03% of the total wagered in the Grand Canyon State during the first quarter of 2023. In Iowa, a small but successful sports betting jurisdiction, Bally Bet's best month in 2023 featured an abysmal $7,305 handle. In the last 12 months, Bally Bet has taken in just $1.1 million in the state of Iowa.

What's next?

Bally Bet will move quickly to integrate the Kambi and White Hat platform into its wagering product. Full integration of the technology isn't expected to be completed until the end of 2023, though. There will be attempts to speed up the full relaunch, so Bally Bet can take advantage of a full NFL season in the states it has a presence in.

When Kambi and White Hat are fully married to the Bally Bet brand, expansion could be next for the sports betting provider. Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Illinois are on the list of potential Bally Bet destinations.