Boomer’s Sportsbook has recently completed its first year of operations in Nevada with a faster-than-expected expansion, growing from an initial target of 10 locations to 16 ahead of the new football season and 20 by November.
In this exclusive interview with Yogonet, Founder and CEO Joe Asher discusses the strategy behind that growth, Boomer’s approach to customer acquisition and pricing, and plans to continue building an independent sportsbook network across the state. Asher also shares his views on the growing presence of prediction markets in the US betting landscape and why Boomer’s intends to remain Nevada-specific.
Boomer’s has now completed its first year of operations. Looking back, what has surprised you the most about the business and its performance?
We had hoped to have about 10 locations open after a year. We’ll have 16 open on September 1 for the start of the football season, and we’ll be at 20 by November. Obviously, we feel pretty good about that. The ability to sign up casinos and have us operate in their properties has been going ahead of where we had hoped.
I’d like to continue that growth, continue to acquire casinos and maybe some bigger casinos as we now move into the second year and establish ourselves as an operating company. Then, obviously, we want to continue to acquire customers at the B2C level. The next two months are very, very important with respect to that as we prepare to start the football season.
This is a big time for customer acquisition, so we’ve got a big push planned from mid-August through the end of September.
We’re talking about roughly double the number of locations you initially expected. What has allowed Boomer’s to expand this fast?
A big part of it is the technology and the ability to have just one or two kiosks at some smaller locations. You don’t need to staff it on a daily basis. Once you move past the setup and licensing costs, you have a very low cost base going forward. That’s clearly beneficial.
In terms of the casinos we’re signing up, we’ve tried to structure our deals in a way that aligns interests. If somebody signs up for a mobile account at a particular casino, we would then treat that person as a customer of that property when they bet on mobile. Therefore, the property is incentivized to help us sign up new mobile customers.
For us, it’s really about finding people who understand what we’re doing and are open to making a change. Some of our customers have been former William Hill customers. William Hill was an independent operation until Caesars bought it five years ago, and many are interested in working with an independent business again.
The other piece to it is that this is a relatively small business in terms of scale. It’s Nevada-only, and all of our casino partners matter to us. I’m not sure they’ve gotten that feeling from others. Structuring our business as a small, Nevada-specific business, as opposed to a nationwide or international enterprise, is something that resonates with customers.
There’s a heavy focus on residents rather than tourists. What have you learned about your core customer, the Nevada bettor?
The local customer can be a customer every day of the year rather than the tourist, who’s only betting with you when they are in town. We do get some tourists, especially at Ellis Island, which is very close to the Las Vegas Strip. But the fact that we’re a locals-oriented business allows us to really focus on things that are important to local bettors.
We try to do a lot of promotions focused on games that are relevant to locals. A lot of focused promotions around Golden Knights hockey and the Raiders. We’ve been doing a lot with the Nevada Wolfpack in Northern Nevada, and other teams that are popular there, such as the 49ers or Boise State football.
Our customers are locals, and we are too. We know what’s topical for them, what they’re interested in betting on and what promotions will be attractive.
How is Boomer’s gearing up for the NFL season?
We’re coming back with the -105 pricing, which was quite popular last year. Since we have so much more reach this year, we wanted to bring it back. It’s a tangible economic reason for somebody to open a Boomer’s account and bet with us.
We’re also staying with the higher payouts on parlays. We’re constantly telling customers: check the price. Check the payout on the Boomer’s app, check it on a competitor’s app, and bet where it’s best for you. Most of the time, you’ll get a better deal with us.
We’re a late entrant into a mature market. Mobile betting has been around in Nevada for over a decade, so many people already have a betting account. In Nevada, you have to sign up for a mobile account in person at a casino, so the customer has to make the effort to go there and sign up. We’ve got to give them a reason to do so.
That’s why we’ve decided to compete based on price. Obviously, we’re also really focused on customer service and things that are relevant to locals, as I mentioned before. We give them a reason to sign up with us rather than just telling them, “Hey, we’re independent.”
We’ve seen prediction markets become an increasingly important issue for the US betting industry. Are you seeing an impact from these platforms on Boomers’ business and the wider Nevada market?
It’s hard for us to quantify the impact because we’re a new company, so we don’t have year-over-year comparisons to quantify it. But of course there is some impact.
They were recently required to block Nevada transactions by virtue of their settlement agreement with the Gaming Control Board. But up until then, they had been operating in Nevada.
Even after the court ordered them to stop, I personally witnessed two friends of mine placing bets from Las Vegas, and they were advertising in the state. You don’t advertise unless you’re intending to get customers, so we certainly are reasonable in believing they were operating and seeking to operate in Nevada.
I can’t quantify what our handle would be, or say it would be an additional X percent, but there is clearly an impact.
What’s your take on how they should be regulated?
They’re sportsbooks, and they’re clearly operating gambling businesses. They should be treated as any other gambling business would be: subject to the same licensing requirements, the same probity checks and the same regulations. Just because you went to MIT and have a bunch of Silicon Valley investors behind you doesn’t give you the right to ignore the law.
Ultimately that’s what’s going to happen. These are clearly gambling businesses. It is clear that in the US, states have the primary responsibility and right to regulate gambling, not some obscure federal agency like the CFTC. I think it’s inevitable that the courts and the US Supreme Court will say that this is a states’ rights issue.
So far, the focus in the media has largely been on gambling states arguing that companies need to comply with their gambling regulations and pay the gambling taxes. What’s mostly been overlooked is the situation in non-gambling states. Utah is a great example of that.
They have made the public policy decision that they don’t want gambling. That’s been Utah’s policy certainly for as long as I can remember. For Kalshi or Polymarket to say, “We don’t care that you don’t want gambling in your state. We’re going to force-feed it to your citizens,” I think is wrong and actually unsustainable.
It’s unfair to operators in Nevada, given all the regulations that we follow and the investments we’ve made based on those regulations. You let somebody else operate who doesn’t follow those same rules, hasn’t made those investments, and gets to compete for customers. That’s not sustainable.
Do you believe that the tide is changing against prediction markets?
People, judges, and policymakers now understand the issue. Early on, some folks didn’t fully understand what was happening. Obviously, those of us in the gambling industry knew right away.
They’re calling them prediction markets, but that’s just a rebranding of betting exchanges, which have been around for about 25 years. This is not new technology. They’re just operating an old concept in the US without regard to what the state laws are.
And obviously, they’re not paying taxes. You’ve got New York with a 51% tax on sportsbooks. They pay zero. That’s crazy. I think they’re illegal businesses and eventually will be prohibited from offering sports betting.
Following a successful first year for Boomer’s, what does the future look like? Is the long-term ambition to build the leading independent sportsbook network in Nevada, or could the business eventually expand beyond the state?
We’re going to keep this as a Nevada-specific business. The in-person signup requirement is unique to Nevada, and that’s a fundamental underpinning of our operation. It shapes the landscape for us, and we’re relying on that in-person signup requirement in setting up this business.
We will continue to grow and add new locations for sure. We’ll be at 20 by the end of this year. I expect that number to be around 30 by the end of next year, or more.
Due to the fact that we’re the only independent sportsbook, I guess that makes us the leading one. But I’d like to work our way up to number two in the market. The William Hill business is the dominant operator in Nevada because they’ve been around for a while and have a large network of retail locations, so they’ve got a big head start.
At the Gaming Control Board hearing when I was first getting a license for Boomer’s, I said there was an 800-pound gorilla in the space, and that’s definitely true. We’ll try to chip away at it a little bit. We’ll also continue working to grow the business and put out a quality product for local customers. They’re my neighbors, and they ought to have the best experience that we can provide.
And I want Boomers to continue to be a really great place to work. We’ve got a great team of people. The Gaming Control Board called it the “dream team” when we first got licensed. We’ve got some great experience. We also have a lot of young people, and I enjoy helping them learn the business.