Action 247 CEO Tina Hodges on running a homegrown sportsbook

Tina Hodges, CEO of Tennessee sportsbook Action 247, discusses what it takes to outcompete some of the industry’s biggest operators in her home state.

What is the brief origin story of how Action 247 came to exist?

I knew immediately when sports gambling was to become legal in Tennessee that I wanted to launch a local sportsbook. After my nursing career, I’ve grown up in financial services, FinTech is the more cool name these days. I knew my skill set as an executive and an operator would be a good match for an online sportsbook.

What motivated you to step into the sports betting space?

As I mentioned above, I’ve been working in fintech for 20 years, and multi-state online for the past 5 years. I know I am uniquely positioned as one of few Tennesseans that could succeed in this exciting venture.

How does your experience as CEO of Advance Financial influence and impact your role at Action 247?

I’ve been the CEO and CXO of Advance Financial since 2013. It’s the CXO skills, Chief Experience Officer, that are really coming into play at Action 24/7. I was surprised to see how poor the service is in the sports gambling industry. Our players are delighted that we answer the phone and solve their issue on the first call. I think we were all surprised to see this news coming out of NJ about sportsbooks delaying withdrawals and even incentivizing players to cancel withdrawals. We are the only sportsbook in Tennessee to offer same day pay, cash deposits and cash withdrawals. The service sports gamblers get in Las Vegas is top notch. But I haven’t found that it is the same for online sports gamblers. We are certainly changing the customer experience here in TN.

What was the turnout like for the Super Bowl? How do you expect the Super Bowl to compare to March Madness?

The Super Bowl was definitely a big day for all of us. We are still so new and registering new customers every day. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t have some days in March that are larger than the Super Bowl. Our book is just growing so much larger. It would make sense for us.

 Is there still untapped potential in the Tennessee market for customer acquisition?

I believe there is definitely more potential in Tennessee. There are lots of players still working with unlicensed sportsbooks. They’ve heard the stories of the licensed sportsbooks holding money and not paying out games for several days. When we tell them about our same day pay and cash deposits and withdrawals, we win them over. We’ve got a long way to go to bring all of those betters out of the shadows and into the regulated market, but we’re doing it!

The full Q&A with Ms. Hodges will appear in the upcoming March/April Gaming America magazine.

Ezra Amacher

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