The name Circa is not synonymous with same-game parlays but a year from now, the company could be in the SGP business.
Indeed, one of the sharpest sportsbook operators around is working on making its product into something that may feel a little more familiar to the army of parlay-loving recreational bettors in the United States.
According to CEO Derek Stevens, Circa Sports is taking a “bit of a pause” with its expansion efforts as it builds technology that will give it new capabilities.
“Once we get our new tech down — it’s still probably a year away — then we’re going to take the next step and do a number of additional states,” Stevens told Covers last week during an interview at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
Circa's online sportsbook is available in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, and Nevada.
That mobile version of Circa Sports is in addition to the company’s popular brick-and-mortar sportsbooks in spots such as Las Vegas, Waukegan, IL., and the Mint Gaming Hall at Kentucky Downs. The last of those sites is a temporary setup until a permanent shop opens at the track next year.
The IT Crowd
But things are changing behind the scenes at Circa.
The operator already has a reputation as a sportsbook for sharper, richer bettors, boasting “the industry’s highest betting limits,” clientele like famous gambler Billy Walters, and oddsmakers such as Hall of Famer Nick Bogdanovich.
Those features aren't going anywhere. They'll just have company.
There is a huge recreational customer base for U.S. sports betting, particularly on the online side. Moreover, online sports betting handle is far greater than what brick-and-mortar books produce, by a margin of nine-to-one or higher.
Stevens said Circa's back-office work will allow the company to own its technology, a trend among operators that want to control their costs and products more closely.
The CEO added that the work will “provide us some technology that’s probably a bit more current relative to what the consumer wants."
In today’s legal sports betting environment, that means more stuff, especially on the parlay side.
“I think our business model of working on a traditional basis of sides, moneylines, and totals, and in-game wagers is one thing,” Stevens said. “And I think we’re kind of known for taking large wagers in those markets. But there’s clearly a market where people want to have three-team to eight-team parlays that they can make quickly and easily without a lot of thought. So we’re going to have to create this tech that has some of these more current market demands.”
SGP SZN
Those enhancements will give Circa more parlay options, including, it hopes, the potential for same-game parlays that have become table stakes for many recreational books. Stevens said the update will enhance the live-wagering side of its mobile sportsbook as well.
“We use a couple of different services to help us but we still book in-game manually,” Stevens said. “We still think that there’s value in doing that but it’s also not quite scalable. Scalable is what you’d like. We think that’ll give us some more in-game options and a bigger menu, which I think would be beneficial.”
And, while online casino gambling is only legal in seven states, Stevens said the new tech will allow Circa to offer that product as well.
“In the jurisdictions that offer online casinos, we’re certainly building our tech to be able to bring that into the fold at some point," he said. "We’re partnered with another company to be able to do that."
The comments suggest Circa — arguably the sharpest bookmaking operation in the legal market — sees an opportunity for itself in the world of SGPs and other, more rec-friendly forms of wagering.
These betting types have typically been the domain of larger, more mainstream operators such as DraftKings and FanDuel, which may not take as big of individual bets as Circa but take more action overall.
For example, in Iowa, Circa's online sports betting handle was $3.1 million for September. DraftKings and FanDuel took $108.4 million and $64.3 million in bets, respectively, during the same month.
California here we come (also, Texas)
But, as Stevens noted, Circa is building its new technology ahead of what it hopes is an expansion into additional states. Two in particular that Stevens is eyeing (and many other gaming execs are doing the same) are California and Texas.
During his keynote at G2E, Stevens said he thinks something will happen in those two states over the next five years — and that it will shake up the sector.
“These two markets are far too big and I think when that happens that changes the scale and the size level of the sports betting industry considerably,” Stevens said.
Stevens also said that, overall, the legal sports betting industry is still in its “infancy,” and that there will be growing pains.
“There’s going to be some mistakes made, there’s going to be corrections that get made,” Stevens said. “I just think we have to realize that right now we’re in the before time, we’re in the early, early stages of things that happen. And I think when you see different regulatory elements come up, some are going to make sense, some might not, some might have to be changed back.”
We had to create our own word for Stadium Swim: a "sports betting aqua-theatre"
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) October 9, 2024
In the meantime, Circa has advantages on the brick-and-mortar side of its business that competitors lack, such as Circa Resort and Casino’s massive sportsbook in Vegas, as well as the "sports betting aqua-theater” (Stevens' phrase) that is Stadium Swim.
“I think you’re going to see more people leverage those investments that can tie in your online app with your brick-and-mortar,” Stevens told Covers. “We’re really trying to push that now with a growing database in Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa and trying to have more and more events at Circa. Pretty much you have to assume anyone who bets with us in Illinois or Kentucky, they’re going to make a trip out to Vegas at some point in the next year.”
Week 6 #CircaSurvivor Results
— Circa Sports (@CircaSports) October 15, 2024
❌ 5 eliminated (4 Titans, 1 Jaguars)
✅ 216 of 14,266 total entries survive to Week 7
🤑 Winner-Take-All Prize: $14,266,000
Implied Value Per Entry: $66,046
📄 Week 7 Team Availability: https://t.co/S8SbSEifdx pic.twitter.com/JiRpWW9TRD
Circa also hosts what has arguably become a cultural event of every NFL regular season: the Circa Survivor contest.
There were over 14,000 entries into this season’s Circa Survivor, creating a prize pool of over $14 million. That is way up from last season’s haul of approximately $9.2 million in prizes and more than 9,200 entries.
The contest (as well as Circa’s point spread-picking competition) is a unique hook that draws customers to the casino and Vegas overall. The fact you have to trek down to Circa to enter means contestants are booking hotel rooms, dining out, hiring proxies to make their picks, and, yes, gambling, which means there are economic benefits for the whole city.
“I think it’s good for our properties, but it’s also good for Las Vegas, it’s good for tourism,” Stevens said. “Now I think Circa Survivor’s taken on a role bigger than just us. This is clearly impacting hotel occupancy and dinners and things like that.”
Drive to Survivor
There is also a ton of interest in the Survivor contest from football fans and bettors. There were only 216 of 14,266 entries remaining after Week 6 of the NFL season, as some of the most popular selections earlier in the season flopped, causing carnage.
Circa is fanning further interest in the contest with a documentary series on Circa Survivor, the first season of which was released earlier this year on VSiN and YouTube.
Production has already commenced on a second run that will be full of the same sort of characters that populated the first.
“We’ve been filming now since July,” Stevens said. “We’ll probably have a ten-episode series for the 2024 season.”
