Regulating in the dark
States can't regulate what they don't understand
Yesterday at the Next.io conference in New York, I spoke on a panel called “The Bettor’s Reality” about the state of sports betting regulation in the US. The short version: eight years after PASPA, the regulatory framework has failed the bettor. Operators limit and ban winners, regulators protect operators instead of customers, and the biggest “innovation” of the era is the same game parlay — a product that holds 40–50% on a single wager. More on that discussion can be found here.
The core point I made on the panel is simple: every dollar of revenue in this industry originates with the bettor. Without bettors, there are no operator profits and no state tax revenues. Operators and regulators are stewards of the industry, and their job is to serve and protect the bettor — operators by offering a fair product and driving innovation, regulators by fostering competition and creating an environment that promotes innovation. By limiting competition, shielding incumbents, and looking the other way as operators ban customers for winning, regulators have instead promoted a framework in which state sports betting licenses are not treated as a license to serve (as they should be) but are instead treated as a license to steal. As a result of this inverted framework, customers are leaving state-regulated sportsbooks in droves, in favor of prediction markets and offshore operators.
On March 11, Analytics.Bet and American Bettors’ Voice (ABV) announced a partnership to help regulators better understand what they are regulating. Starting this month, Analytics.Bet will make its “Foundations of Sports Betting” course freely available to U.S. gaming regulators, problem gambling organizations, and legislative bodies, including members of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS).
This is the same course we’ve taught to bettors, analysts, and industry professionals for years. It covers the mathematical and operational realities of sportsbooks — how odds are set, how markets move, and what the consumer experience looks like in practice. The goal is straightforward: give the people who oversee this industry the tools they need to build a long-term sustainable industry.
As ABV CEO Richard Schuetz put it: “You cannot effectively regulate what you do not fully understand.” For too long, the conversation around sports betting policy has been dominated by operator marketing. This partnership is designed to change that by arming policymakers with a rigorous understanding of the betting markets they are responsible for regulating.
If you are a regulator, legislator, or responsible gaming organization interested in access to the course, contact info@analytics.bet.