It’s no secret the people who bet both sports and casino are the customers operators most covet. Rush Street Interactive – parent of BetRivers, PlaySugarHouse and RushBet – notes that users of both verticals generate gross gambling revenue (GGR) 12.5x higher than a sports-only player. Even its casino-only users are responsible for GGR almost 5x greater than those who stick to betting with the sportsbook, according to the Chicago-based firm. Effective cross-sell of a customer base, particularly in the direction of sports to igaming, can, quite clearly, turbocharge earnings.
Yet it seems the once clear divide between sports betting and casino has become increasingly indistinct, as casino elements permeate sportsbook products. You could make the case it was the now-defunct BetStars (sports betting arm of PokerStars) that was the catalyst for this trend a decade ago with the introduction of Spin & Bet. An RNG in the betslip boosted the odds on a selection by up to 10x, while a neat animation spinning through the 1x to 10x possibilities added to the thrill.
What’s labelled the ‘casinofication’ of sports betting appears to be accelerating, though, as sports betting becomes more a game of chance than a cerebral puzzle to solve. Then there’s the attractive house edge. “The real margin is in the casinofication of sports betting,” suggests casino consultant Brendan Tinnelly. One recent example is the rollout of DraftKings Moonshot, a live multiplier system that increases based on baseball batters’ performances at the plate. Customers choose a target multiplier tied to batter outcomes:
- Pitch: +0.25x
- Walk: +1.0x
- Reach first base on non-hit: +1.0x
- Single: +1.0x
- Double: +2.0x
- Triple: +3.0x
- Home run: +4.0x
Bettors can cash out at any time before reaching their target, or an out is recorded. If there is an out before the target multiplier is reached or prior to hitting the cashout button, the bet is deemed a loser. This dynamic wagering product was initially rolled out in 17 US jurisdictions and Ontario, Canada, in June. “The interface is much more like a crash game, so it’s sports betting powered by sports but with a casino-like experience,” Tinnelly remarks.
Meanwhile, former FanDuel vice-president Jesse Chemtob says: “It feels influenced by mechanics that have worked well in casino and gaming, where progression itself becomes part of the entertainment. From an operator perspective, it’s likely an attractive product because it creates differentiation and potentially drives longer engagement with the event.”
“The more DraftKings is able to lean into these gamified experiences,” Tinnelly explains, “the more it puts clear water between them and [prediction markets] Kalshi and Polymarket, who will find it difficult to integrate this [casinofication].” As a side note to that point, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission – the US federal agency which regulates prediction markets – has proposed market rules that appear to limit sports event contracts, such as the “outcome of a specific pitch thrown by a specific pitcher”. The fear is markets of this ilk are more susceptible to manipulation than full-game player props.
The rollout of Moonshot comes hard on the heels of the release of DraftKings’ DK Replay in Oregon earlier this year. Also featuring baseball, the product uses hundreds of thousands of historical MLB plate appearances from the last few seasons to serve up an on-demand bet-by-pitch game. Batters and pitchers are anonymised, while users place wagers on whether the outcome of the next pitch will be a ball, a strike or an in-play.
Once the bet is settled, the players who were involved in the on-field action are revealed. “We’re definitely seeing the lines blur,” Chemtob notes more generally. “Sportsbooks are increasingly borrowing mechanics from casino, gaming and mobile apps to create more engaging experiences, while casino operators are looking for ways to leverage sports audiences.”
Given the slip
For years, bet365 was resolutely focused on sports and sports only. Sure, the privately owned giant has always had casino, though its gaming portfolio quietly sat in the background ticking over nicely. However, there has been a notable push of late to strengthen its product offering, resulting in the company accounts for the 52 weeks to 30 March 2025 noting a “marked increase in [gaming] revenue”, without going into specifics on figures. One small example of casino stepping out of the shadow of sportsbook is the static roulette wheel icon positioned in the bottom right corner of the bet365 app homepage, to act as an always-visible shortcut to the casino as you scroll up and down.
Tinnelly says: “Bet365 didn’t want to know about casino gaming for years – they wouldn’t talk about it in their advertising […] they’ve made a massive investment [lately] in the quality of the casino product, as well as the lobby.” Bet365 is another company melding sports with casino with the introduction of Jackpot365 in time for the World Cup.
Live in the UK, Brazil, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada’s Ontario and selected dotcom markets, this innovative feature is a progressive jackpot embedded in the betslip with four levels of cash prizes up for grabs: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Users toggle a button to add 50p to their stakes before a three-reel slot machine with numbers and symbols spins inside a narrow window.
While it probably wouldn’t win any awards for aesthetics, the aim is to match ‘365’ to win. The firm said that since December 2025, the Jackpot365 casino product has paid out around £50m in jackpot prizes from more than 112,000 wins. By expanding the progressive slot beyond the casino, the operator is boosting cross-sell with a simple to use and easily accessible feature. Just days after being introduced to the sportsbook betslip, 832 jackpots totalling £259,000 were paid out to sports customers, the operator reported.
Armed with this information, Alun Bowden, senior vice-president of strategic insight at boutique analyst firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, wrote on LinkedIn that a theoretical RTP of 85% means bet365 had won around £45,000. “Hardly seems worth it,” he added. Yet the fact this feature is being rolled out to more and more bet365 markets where the brand occupies podium positions means it must be generating not-so-insignificant revenue. At ‘only’ 50p a pop it’s an extra little dopamine hit when placing a sports bet – even if the way the opt-in button automatically remains toggled on subsequent wagers could slightly irk those who preferred to experiment with it once.
You could liken Jackpot365 to impulsively grabbing a scratch card at the counter when on your way out of the supermarket. Chemtob points out this “mini-slot experience”, as he describes it, does away with having to navigate to the casino and he expects “uptake to be strong”. That said, he questions whether a progressive jackpot was the suitable choice of igaming product to embed in the betslip.
“[It] would likely be even stronger with a table game like blackjack where there’s more natural demographic overlap with the male-heavy sports betting audience,” he says. Tinnelly has reservations of his own. “How often do customers need to win to come back? I think everyone will hit it once or twice to see what happens but, if you opted in for your last 10 bets and not seen any payout, then most people will stop. For me, the sweet spot is closer to a coinflip than longshot odds.”
In a right state
DraftKings’ casino-like sportsbook products outlined earlier suggest the US could remain at forefront of the casinofication push, especially with so few states having legalised online casino. Right now, the count stands at eight states (Maine is due to go live this year), which is equivalent to around 12% of the total US population.
In Florida, where Hard Rock Bet is the de facto monopoly sports betting operator, casino games weren’t included in the 30-year compact signed between the Seminole Tribe and Governor Ron DeSantis in 2021. But this small fact didn’t stop Hard Rock Bet’s development team at Hard Rock Digital from pushing the boundaries with the release last year of a product “powered by past motor races”. It’s sports betting but with the veneer of slots.
We can probably expect more products like this from HRD in Florida, as well as from operators looking to generate additional revenue in sports-only states with icasino legislation unlikely anytime soon. “The trend is likely to accelerate,” suggests Chemtob, “particularly in the US where sports betting has wider distribution, but most states don’t have regulated online casino framework. That creates a strong incentive to build sports products that incorporate some of the engagement and retention characteristics traditionally associated with casino or to look for gaming-adjacent verticals that can mimic the online casino experience.”
Moreover, Tinnelly makes the point that the US market has turned out to be not as price sensitive as we’d previously been led to believe. “When PASPA was repealed [in 2018], we heard from everybody that the US punter is very different to the Europeans; they expect really tight lines and it’s all about the sharp money. That proved to be absolute horse shit. They are just as margin insensitive as everyone else. Same game parlays have proved there is a massive appetite for these high-margin, longshot bets and this [casinofication] is potentially another manifestation of this.”
Naturally, though, bettors need to feel they are getting bang for their buck and not being rinsed by casinofied products with eye-watering house edges. Tinnelly warns: “If you’re cleaning your customer out with 15% or 20% [margin] it’s important that’s reinvested and you’re still offering the customer chances to win. They need to win sometimes, not every couple of months.” Having happily placed multiple 50p sportsbook side bets in a vain attempt to win a cash prize on Jackpot365 ourselves, EGR would certainly echo this sentiment.
The post Blurred lines: the continued convergence of sportsbook and casino products first appeared on EGR Intel.
Recent innovations introduced by DraftKings and bet365 are further evidence the so-called ‘casinofication’ of sports betting is here to stay rather than an ephemeral gimmick
The post Blurred lines: the continued convergence of sportsbook and casino products first appeared on EGR Intel.