One of the most prominent sports betting brands from the 1990s and 2000s is coming back to the U.S.
Powered by platform provider Plannatech, Betcris is accepting customers and providing an app for download with the intent of launching an online sportsbook in Arizona this week.
Dear #Arizona Sportsbettors...
— Adam Bjorn (@AdamBjorn2) January 24, 2025
Here to drop a small friday afternoon nugget, thats been in the works for a bit over a year..
Available now for signups.. IOS App also available for download. Betting will go-live some time next week.https://t.co/J3tZlHKUDG pic.twitter.com/gxk3vwuTj2
Known for “where the line originates,” Betcris left the U.S. market in 2007 after the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act was passed to make offshore sportsbooks illegal. It’s not technically returning as a regulated entity, though.
Plannatech, which received an operating license in the Grand Canyon State through its partnership with the San Carlos Apache Tribal Gaming Enterprise in August, is using the Betcris likeness and image to create nostalgia and brand awareness in Arizona.
“This brought an opportunity to get a B2C license as an operator. Me being on this side of the world for 20-plus years, knowing the Betcris brand and (Plannatech) as a platform provider for Betcris in Latin America, strategically saw it as an opportunity,” Plannatech chief operating officer Adam Bjorn told Covers on Monday.
“We could’ve gone to many others with brand deals. To me, it was trying to find a spot or niche that would get attention without needing that massive branding budget that so many others have an advantage against us.”
Learning from failures
Bjorn, whose company is also the platform provider for Prime Sports in the U.S., initially became a Betcris customer in the early 2000s. About 10 years ago, he started working with the offshore sportsbook and opened Betcris Jamaica.
Through building Plannatech over the last five years, powering Prime Sports in Ohio and New Jersey, and learning from the failures of other Arizona operators, he’s ready to tackle the market, despite four sports betting operators, including Betfred, exiting the state in 2024.
Despite competition from the biggest names in the U.S. sports betting industry, Bjorn is taking a different approach in what he feels is the perfect market for the Betcris brand, which neither the tribe nor Arizona regulators had any issue with him using.
“It’s really hard to do this in a regulated market in the U.S. when you’ve got two behemoths (FanDuel and DraftKings) and a bunch of brick and mortars,” Bjorn said.
Good landing spot
Arizona checks a lot of Plannatech’s boxes. Its arbitrage market is similar to New Jersey, the 10% tax rate on sports betting operators is reasonable, and there are attractive neighbors, like the massively populous and unregulated sports betting state of California.
New Mexico only offers retail sports betting, and Nevada is close enough that bettors who enjoy old-school bookmaking at Circa Sports could cross into Arizona to use Bjorn’s operation as a pricing option.
And then there’s Mexico to the south. Betcris is successful in that country, bringing a ton of brand recognition to the region.
“It’s a good, small spot to see what we can do with Plannatech and the brand,” Bjorn said.
The Grand Canyon State, which features 14 online Arizona sports betting operators, also provides a suitable demographic – retirement communities and “known, educated sports bettors” – Bjorn says could recognize the Betcris brand.
Building brick-by-brick
Success in Arizona, Bjorn says, is “breaking square and covering overheads.” Then it’s about getting the first 100 customers and then 1,000.
Plannatech is a private company without investors or public stock that’s on a decade or even multi-decade plan to chip away at market share and build Plannatech’s reach “brick-by-brick.”
“We’re not in a race against anyone but ourselves and this industry isn’t going anywhere,” Bjorn said. “Most people have four or five (sports betting) apps. I’m just looking to be sort of that third or fourth app on anybody’s phone.”
Bjorn wants to take bets in every state, but the varying tax rates make that quite difficult. For now, he’s about making it work in Arizona before he looks elsewhere.
“I definitely want to grow this thing, but I know it’s really hard,” Bjorn said. “Get in Arizona, catch a little bit of football season. We’ll get a Super Bowl, we’ll get some March Madness. It’ll be a very quiet summer. Roll into football season and maybe at the end of season, if it’s everything we think it can be, then we’ll look at some other states.”
Prime slows Kentucky launch
Prime Sports received a service provider license in December, but the sportsbook is in no rush to launch, Bjorn said.
He told Covers last month that the plan was to be operational by the Kentucky Derby, but on Monday, Bjorn said Prime could wait until June and be ready to make a market push during the next football season.
“People clearly can see that Ohio has been a struggle (for Prime),” Bjorn said. “New Jersey has been a little better. The U.S. has made it hard to be a startup. Putting that third state on hold isn’t going to hurt anyone. The ground is always shifting and anything could be possible in the next two or three months.”
