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Louisville-based Churchill Downs' sports betting and iGaming wing, BetAmerica will be getting a huge sportsbook technology and services assist moving forward thanks to a multi-year agreement the company signed with technology providers Game Account Network (GAN) and Kambi Group Friday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The goal of the partnership is to better position the BetAmerica brand in an ever-growing US legal sports betting industry that took in $13 billion in wagers in 2019, despite just 13 states contributing to those astronomical numbers. Churchill Downs and BetAmerica currently have a presence in New JerseyPennsylvaniaIndiana and Mississippi and is about to go live in Michigan, but like many of its competitors has an eye on other states as the legal betting industry explodes across the country.

What GAN and Kambi bring to the table

GAN and Kambi technology will be a key addition to the BetAmerica brand as it tries to stay in the same league as the big players in the sports betting industry. Their technology will bring top-notch player account management, a casino platform, sports trading and risk management services to BetAmerica as it attempts to grow its presence in the US market.

The goal for Churchill Downs and BetAmerica is to deliver second-to-none quality betting experiences for customers, online, mobile and in-person. Customer acquisition and retention in an increasingly saturated US market is becoming crucial and hopes are that GAN and Kambi can assist BetAmerica with just that.

What Churchill Downs brings to the table

Churchill Downs is in the process of elevating BetAmerica into a widely recognizable brand in the US and companies like London-based GAN are poised to take advantage. GAN realized Churchill Downs' “expansive range” in the US scene and its “existing market agreements for Internet gambling”.

It is the Churchill Downs reach and their recognizable name that made them a prime target for GAN and Kambl, which is headquartered in Malta and was started in Sweden. With the US legal betting goldrush on, Churchill Downs and BetAmerica were an attractive target in a shrinking pool of companies to align with in the US market.

Eye on expansion

It is clear that GAN and Kambi were brought on with the future of BetAmerica in mind. With 2020 being essentially a write-off because of the coronavirus pandemic, Churchill Downs clearly has the next few years in mind when discussing the partnership.

It was Chief Executive Officer for Kambi, Kristian Nylén that the deal “is expected to have a small positive impact” on its 2020 revenue but that the “partnership has the potential to become a material source of revenue over the course of the contract.”

Bill Carstanjen, CEO of CDI, said in the release: “We believe the transition to GAN and Kambi as our new technology providers will enable our team to execute the rollout of BetAmerica sportsbooks and

iGaming product offering more efficiently as states move to legalize and implement regulations permitting sports betting and iGaming in the coming years. BetAmerica will benefit from the proven excellence of these market-leading providers.”

Where and when will GAN and Kambi be live with BetAmerica

GAN and Kambi technology will be quick to market with BetAmerica. Michigan could be the flagship state for the partnership with Churchill Downs hoping to make a splash in the fresh yet exciting Michigan market.

Churchill Downs will open a retail BetAmerica sportsbook at the federally recognized Potawatomi tribe’s Island Resort & Casino in Harris, Michigan and will have a strong mobile component to go along with that launch, so as to gain immediate access to customers across the state.

But before that, Kambi and GAN technologies will be integrated into the other BetAmerica platforms in its other US locations, which should make the results of the merger apparent sooner than later.

Partnerships have become a crucial part of operating in the bustling US legal sports betting market. Companies are acting quickly and decisively, looking to seize on the huge opportunity that is the American scene. GAN, Kambi and Churchill Downs are the latest, but certainly not last, example of the rash of companies hoping to get their slice of the US pie.