I’m a huge sports fan. Always have been. I’m an even bigger fan of making money (and that’s saying something). We’re smack in the middle of a great time for both at once — thanks to some great news for gaming stocks.
In terms of sports, the NBA and NHL playoffs start in just a few weeks. Major League Baseball’s spring training is in “full swing” (sorry, couldn’t resist). In fact, I’m writing to you from Florida, where I’m catching a few Philadelphia Phillies’ practices and games.
And to top it all off… the 2019 NCAA basketball tournament just got under way. You’ve also heard it called “March Madness,” and that brings us to investing.
More than 40 million people were expected to fill out those famous brackets – picking winners round-by-round all the way through the championship. From those little office pools to big-time bets elsewhere, nearly 20% of adults in the U.S. are expected to bet on the tournament. The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimates that about $8.5 billion in total will be wagered on the tournament, which puts it up with the Super Bowl as the most bet on sports events each year.
This year’s tournament marks a landmark shift, especially for gaming stocks. It is the first time in its 80-year history when betting on it is legal outside of Nevada.
Similar to marijuana, the wave of legalized sports betting is building since a Supreme Court decision last May left the question of sports betting up to individual states. It hasn’t taken long for several to jump on board in just the last 10 months. In addition to Nevada, sports betting is now legal in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Delaware, Mississippi and New Mexico.
I realize eight states do not make a wave, but this is just the beginning. More than 20 other states are at least considering legalization. In less than a year, more than half of all states have either jumped on the sports betting bandwagon or are thinking about it.
A wave of legalization is powerful on its own, but there’s more to the story. In addition to more states allowing sports betting, the ways people can bet and the types of bets available are also about to explode.
The Great American Sports Betting Boom
Any time the government opens up a huge new market, investors can win very big. That’s true now for gaming stocks.
Not convinced? Just look at marijuana.
Last fall, Canada legalized cannabis throughout the entire nation. More and more U.S. states are doing the same, even though it is technically illegal on the federal level. (Just wait until that changes!)
Thanks to this wave of marijuana legalization, sales in the United States and Canada are growing at more than 20% per year… and will do so for many years. The legal marijuana industry is set to grow 10-fold over the coming decade.
This will create massive new markets and stock winners. Actually, it already is.
At Matt McCall’s Investment Opportunities, marijuana stocks have surged 58% on average just since the beginning of the year. One is up more than 156%. Another is up 98.5%. Two more have gained over 70%. All in less than three months.
Another government action – the Supreme Court ruling last May – opened the door to legal sports betting. It will take a little longer to unfold state by state, but this is also a huge opportunity still in its early stages.
Let’s look at some numbers. If you can grasp the significance of these, you’ll be well on your way to making a fortune with gaming stocks in the Great American Sports Betting Boom.
In 2017, the last full year before the Supreme Court’s decision, Nevada was the only state that allowed sports gambling. A total of $4.87 billion was wagered legally in that state. But that paled in comparison to the estimated $150 billion that was bet illegally. About 30 times more money was bet illegally than legally.
As more states come on board, there is no doubt that a large percentage of those illegal bets will move over to legal channels. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a boutique research firm specializing in the gaming and technology sector, sees annual gaming revenue of $6 billion in the U.S. by 2023. That’s based on 32 states legalizing sports gambling, which seems more than reasonable over the next four years.
One Gaming Stock to Get You Started
Like marijuana, the sports betting market is being created in large measure thanks to government actions. Also like marijuana, the opportunity is made even more exciting by the various ways to profit from it. There are a number of gaming stocks that can succeed and take a big piece of the growing sports gambling pie.
The most obvious would be the casinos, which can easily add a sportsbook and attract gamblers who are already on their properties.
Plus, technology is needed to power the gambling experience on land and on mobile devices. In the coming years, the majority of wagers will be placed via apps. You want to own companies that are at the forefront of this technology.
Then there are the leagues and the teams themselves. One company that encompasses many of these opportunities is William Hill (OTCMKTS:WIMHY). You may not be familiar with the name, but in London there are more William Hill betting stores than there are Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) or McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) locations.
As cool as that is, I’m more interested in how aggressively this leading betting and gaming stock is going after the U.S. market. William Hill has already expanded into six of the eight states where sports betting is legal, and we know there is more to come.
William Hill has also already partnered with a few professional teams, from the minor leagues to the big leagues, including the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights and New Jersey Devils. This trend should continue and include more of the largest franchises in the world.
It also opens the door for something I expect will be a big boost to the company and sports betting itself: in-game wagering. Simply open an app on your phone and place your bet as the game is going on. Which player will score the next goal? Who will commit the next foul? To stick with the sports theme, this is a slam dunk. Sports fans will love this.
William Hill has a big advantage with its well-established app, name recognition, and loyalty among gamblers. Its sportsbook app has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times from Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store.
I recommend William Hill in my Investment Opportunities service. We’re down since I added it last July. But honestly, that makes it an even better buy for you, reading this today. A lot of the sports betting/gaming stocks have been off to a slow start, but looking out over the long term, I expect it to climb much higher as legalized sports gambling spreads.
That’s a bet I expect to pay off big time.
The thing I love best about sports betting is that it’s a big investing theme that gives us multiple ways to make money. So is the spreading legalization of marijuana.
As the cannabis market explodes, more and more companies are coming public. Please don’t rush out and buy them! There’s some homework to do first. Make sure the fundamentals back up the hype. And the timing has to be right.
That’s all part of my Cannabis Cash Calendar system, which I designed specifically for marijuana IPOs. The early results are impressive: Overall, our marijuana stocks have surged 58% on average in less than three months. One of our biggest gainers is a stock that recently went public. We’re up more than 85% since we bought it in early December.
I already have the date circled for my next recommendation — just two weeks away, on April 4.
You can get exclusive access to it as soon as it’s released to my Investment Opportunities readers. Click here to learn more about this opportunity and how to get on the list to be notified.
Even if you don’t know a thing about the marijuana markets… even if you’ve never bought a stock before. You could take just a small stake, and potentially multiply it over the next 12 months. Click here to learn more about this incredible story.
Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else, click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today.
