Circa Sports Receives Arizona License, Continues Expansion of Sharp Business Model
Circa Sportsbook Las Vegas (Credit: Sarah Stierch/Flickr)
The Arizona Department of Gaming awarded Circa Sportsbook a license to operate in the Grand Canyon State, where it will attempt to continue the slow expansion of its unique business model.
Gaming America previously speculated that operators who would find Arizona hospitable would include those with a niche product. Circa fits the bill with its focus on price-conscious customers and offers high limits, welcoming sharp bettors that other sportsbooks shut out.
Circa’s license comes via a partnership with the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe. It will be the 15th licensed sportsbook in Arizona, according to the Department of Gaming.
Circa Sportsbook Gaining Momentum
For Circa, Arizona will be its seventh legal state. It began with its flagship Nevada property, located on Fremont Street. There, it made waves with its eye-popping retail sportsbook, creating a viewer-friendly experience that allowed customers to sweat their bets in style.
Since then, Circa has expanded to Illinois, Colorado, Kentucky, Iowa, and Missouri. The Missouri license shocked many in the industry. The state was set to award two untethered licenses (the winning operators wouldn’t need to partner with local entities), and DraftKings unsurprisingly won one. Missouri awarded the other to Circa, forcing international betting giant FanDuel to go the partnership route.
The expansion of Circa has happened even as some of its most popular products remain Nevada-only. Circa runs two of the biggest NFL contests in the world, its Circa Survivor and Circa Million. The former forces contestants to choose weekly straight-up winners without repeating picks or losing one, and it generated an $18.7 million prize pool last year. The latter is a season-long against-the-spread contest with a slightly more modest $6 million prize pool.
Neither of those is available to customers unless they are willing to fly to Nevada for the initial sign-up.
Yet, Circa has persisted, slowly expanding to more states, generally with little fanfare or hype. Some of the expansion has been online-only, but there are retail Circa Sportsbooks in Illinois and Kentucky.
Since the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe does not have a retail casino, it seems likely that Circa Arizona will be an online-only endeavor. Gaming America sent an email to Circa asking for clarification on that, as well as the timing of a potential launch, but had not received a response at the time of writing.
Circa Targets Customers Marginalized by Larger Competitors
Arizona has a 10% tax rate on online sportsbooks, one of the country’s lowest. That makes it an attractive market to all operators, but especially Circa, which is working with finer margins than most.
Circa has carved out a bit of a niche in the U.S. sports betting industry as a “sharp” book. Most sportsbooks make a business decision to identify, limit, and sometimes ban winning players. Circa goes the opposite direction, welcoming large wagers and sharp action in an effort to sharpen the book’s own numbers.
It also regularly offers the best prices in the industry. Secure in the knowledge that its numbers are more accurate, it can afford a lower theoretical hold. In theory, if the numbers are very sharp and the limits are high, Circa can make up for the edge gap with greater volume.
Low-limit bettors are often turned off by Circa’s lack of promos. They fail to understand that they’re making up for some of that with better-than-average prices.
In the early days of legal U.S. online betting, as promotional money was flying around like crazy, Circa opted to bide its time and let the early flurry subside. As time has worn on, pressure has increased for sportsbooks to turn a profit. Additionally, fewer states have online, and the well is nearly dry — most of the states that want legal sports betting already have it. That combo has caused the promotional money flow to slow.
That, in turn, opened up the door for Circa to compete on more even ground. Sports bettors looking for value will quickly realize the competitive pricing at Circa allows them to get better odds. Furthermore, customers who have been booted from Circa’s competitors will find that Circa welcomes their action.
Circa fills an important niche in an industry that’s often short on transparency. Arizona customers will be the latest to benefit at a date to be determined.
Image credit: Sarah Stierch/Flickr (license)
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