Barstool Sportsbook Launches in Pennsylvania with Data, Tips from GTG Network

Posted on: September 15, 2020, 12:23h. 

Last updated on: September 15, 2020, 01:04h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Penn National Gaming’s much-ballyhooed Barstool Sportsbook is live in Pennsylvania today, and the betting platform debuts featuring data and trend analysis, courtesy of GTG Network.

Rivers Casino Sportsbook
Bettors and staff at the Rivers Casino sportsbook in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania sports gamblers can get data and tips through Barstool Sportsbook and GTG Network. (Image: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Australia-based GTG parses trillions of data sets across an array of sports to offer gamblers trend-based tips for use in formulating their wagers. Users of the Barstool Sportsbook application will have access to GTG offerings while logged in. Today marks the start of a three-day soft launch for the platform, recently approved by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). Penn National is aiming to roll the app out across its home state on Sept. 18.

Financial terms of the deal with GTG weren’t disclosed. But the objective for Penn and Barstool Sports is clear: tap into the latter’s popularity with key younger demographics, while creating sticky customers, which is no small feat in an increasingly competitive US sports wagering market.

Data confirms Barstool Sports has deep reach into the gambler-rich Gen X and millennial age groups.  But nearly all of those potential clients aren’t professional bettors fiddling with spreadsheets and building analytical models. Rather, they’re casual and recreational gamblers, but they are searching for edges and tips — a void that GTG can fill for users of Barstool Sportsbook.

Fun Facts and Trends

Through its iSport Genius (iSG) platform, which is used by a variety of sportsbooks around the world, GTG generates what the company calls “fun facts,” or pithy, data-based tidbits bettors can potentially use to their advantage.

Fun facts are short and sharp pieces of content, covering both teams and players. While thousands of facts are automatically generated for every single game, various ratings systems are used to ensure only the best and most relevant are selected for publication,” according to the company.

A hypothetical example of a GTG fun fact could be something along the lines of the following: In their last 10 Monday Night Football appearances, the Dallas Cowboys are 8-1-1 against the spread when coming off a bye week.

There’s likely an audience for that type of data, because it’s easily digestable for a broader swath of casual bettors than, say, wonky, math-laden terms such as expected value and closing line value.

Another Plus

Barstool Sportsbook’s tie-up with GTG is relevant for another reason. Perhaps more than any other gaming/media relationship, of which there are plenty, Penn’s benefit from Barstool is derived from personalities, namely founder David Portnoy.

Penn’s leveraging that with the new app because Portnoy and other popular Barstool personalities will be making picks and keeping a record of their wins and losses. The deal with GTG provides an avenue for those recommendations to bolster content and be rooted in more science than gut instinct.

The agreement is reportedly GTG’s largest in the US to date. The Aussie firm’s other American clients include Cisco Systems, the Los Angeles Lakers, and Penn/Barstool rivals Caesars Entertainment and DraftKings.