On Monday afternoon, BetMGM officially enters its 28th state when its North Carolina sports betting app begins taking wagers.
The sportsbook is a joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Entain, a United Kingdom-based operator formerly known as GVC Holdings. With the backing of those two gaming giants, it’s considered one of the top online operators in the States. It was formed in July 2018, just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned PASPA, opening the doors for sports betting to expand across the country.
Matt Prevost joined BetMGM’s executive team five years ago, serving as its chief marketing officer initially before becoming its chief revenue officer in October 2020. As his title indicates, Prevost oversees BetMGM’s commercial operations, including its trading and player relations divisions.
BetMGM North Carolina received its license through its relationship with the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a requirement state lawmakers inserted into last year’s budget. Prevost described the Speedway Motorsports venue as “an absolutely fantastic” partner.
“We’re thrilled with that relationship,” he added. "We look forward to Memorial Day weekend to really activate that, with all the events that are taking place, including the Coca-Cola 600.”
Prevost sat down to talk about BetMGM, its North Carolina sports betting launch, its plans in the state and other subjects in a recent interview with BetCarolina.com. The following is the first part of that interview, edited lightly for brevity and context.
Q & A With BetMGM Executive Matt Prevost
Q: What’s the past week been like leading up to Monday’s North Carolina BetMGM launch?
Matt Prevost: “We’re incredibly excited and thrilled about the upcoming launch in North Carolina. We are seeing tremendous response in the pre-registration period. We’re outpacing what we saw in the most comparable state, Massachusetts. We’re seeing more registrations during this period than what we saw in Massachusetts at a similar time period.
“The timing of this market launch is not lost on me. It’s right on the cusp of the ACC Tournament and right on the cusp of March Madness. The capital of college basketball, I think, is North Carolina. I think from the minute we go live in the state, we’re going to see a lot of people depositing and starting to get involved in the great sports culture that exists in North Carolina.”
Q: Was there anything in particular that North Carolina or the Lottery Commission did to help operators with the rollout process?
MP: “We’ve now worked with 28 different regulators. I would say North Carolina has been very pragmatic, solution-oriented, and I think also aware of the role they play in establishing the timetable and establishing the rules.
“We’ve done this a lot now. I’d say North Carolina is absolutely at the upper, upper end of how smooth the process has gone. We’re very pleased with the interactions we’ve had with the North Carolina regulators.”
Q: Where does North Carolina fit within the BetMGM universe? What is the potential for the market there?
MP: “We look at North Carolina certainly as a top 10 state. We think that on a brand basis, we’ve had a good market presence in Tennessee. We have a good market presence in Virginia. We’ve seen a lot of customers with North Carolina addresses, and thousands of them are betting mostly in Tennessee and Virginia. They bet everywhere, but they mostly bet in Tennessee and Virginia. So, we think that we’re starting with a great base. We start with a great base of MGM Rewards customers as well, and finally, we expect to be able to bust lose the first state we’ve gone live where we have the Marriott partnership live as well.”
Q: What has the customer acquisition experience been like for BetMGM in North Carolina? Are people joining because they’ve had a prior experience with MGM Resorts?
MP: “It’s early. What I’ll say is that we obviously leverage prior customer relationships. That’s a stronger customer relationship than the ‘I visited Vegas two years ago’ relationship. However, across our whole customer base, roughly one-third of our customers have had some prior relationship with MGM. That could be anything. It could be purchasing a ticket at the Borgata. It could be staying the night at the MGM Grand. There could be a lot of different components, but at some point, there was a transaction that was registered to them. It’s, as you’d expect, highly concentrated around where there are regional casinos. So, we have a big concentration around Detroit, big concentration around New Jersey and Philadelphia as well.”
Later this week, the second part of BetCarolina.com’s conversation with Prevost will discuss partnerships with X and Marriott, the type of customers the BetMGM brand targets and where he sees the sports betting industry moving in the next few years.
Enjoy the best North Carolina sportsbook promos right here on BetCarolina.com.
