Pappas Gives High Marks To Sports Betting During Pandemic

The question on everyone’s mind these days is how long will this shutdown last, and what will recovery look like? This just as the sports betting industry was exploding after the Supreme Court paved the way for the industry in 2018.

The ruling said a ban on nationwide sports betting was unconstitutional and needed to be lifted. Since then, there have been state after state coming on line and launching sports betting, with stellar results in the billions of dollars in profit.

Just as several more states announced plans to launch sports betting in 2020, tragedy struck in the way of a worldwide pandemic. Some states, in the wake of sports being shut down, decided to shelve their launch plans until sports came back online.

A few states have launched in spite of the shutdown, and Colorado is on track to launch on May 1 as originally planned. John Pappas is the CEO of Corridor Consulting, which is based in Washington, D.C. Pappas has more than 20 years of expertise in government relations and strategy.

Pappas Sees An Excellent Job Being Done At Maintaining Growth

Pappas’ main focus of the last five years has been on the expansion of online gambling and sports betting. He was called upon by several sports betting companies to help with strategy when dealing with government agencies before, during, and after they launched their products.

Pappas talked to ABC News this week about sports betting during the pandemic and survival tactics for when the sports world comes back online. Pappas was asked for feedback on sports betting during the COVID-19 shutdown, and what things will be like when stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Pappas said, “I don’t have to tell you we are swimming in uncharted waters. As much as I pride myself on having the inside scoop, it is difficult to predict the future landscape of gaming, when the news and information we have to process changes daily.”

Pappas went on to explain, “For the short term, there is little doubt that the gaming industry will change, and more importantly, people’s feelings about gaming, particularly at a casino, will be altered.”

Pappas suggested that the American psyche has changed due to all the carnage the pandemic has inflicted around the world.

Online Gaming Has Experienced Tremendous Growth

Everything will be different, Pappas warned, “however, it’s not all bleak for sports betting and online gaming.” With this type of thing, anything that can be done safely at home has prospered a great deal through the shutdown.

That fact, he said, “is very good news for sports betting. They have managed to incorporate iSports into their offerings, and people have been flocking to sports betting sites in record numbers in some quarters. If a company can expand during a time like this, imagine what will happen when things return to a full-throttle level.”

Pappas also sent out a message to casinos that haven’t been able or elected not to expand into the online markets. He said, “This current situation has highlighted the need for the land-based casino industry to have a digital offering, iGaming as well.

“I am hopeful that the industry and the dozens of states with commercial and tribal casinos will push for iGaming expansion in the coming year. It’s always been a smart business decision to modernize gaming into the digital era, but it has become far more important to serve as a revenue lifeline not just for the casinos but for the state governments that rely on gambling tax dollars to fund critical programs.”