We recently published a list of 10 Best Sports Betting Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ:CHDN) stands against the other sports betting stocks.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2018 set off a sports betting boom that legalized wagering in 38 states and the District of Columbia. North Carolina legalized sports betting on March 11, and within the first 12 hours of the law’s implementation, the state wagered a remarkable $23.9 million. Of these, 30 states allow online sports betting, so if you’re within state lines, the thrill is only a click away. While most states have a minimum age of 21, a handful allow 18 or older.
Consumers can now bet from anywhere as long as they are physically present in the state due to the growth of online platforms. As a result, Americans legally wagered a record $119.84 billion on sports in 2023, up 27.5% from 2022, per the American Gaming Association’s Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker, ushering in a new era for sports gambling in the US. Consequently, the sports betting industry’s revenue grew to $10.92 billion, a 44.5% YoY increase from 2022. The expansion was predominantly driven by continuing maturation in most existing markets as well as some new ones, including Massachusetts and Ohio. The trend is expected to continue, and in the second quarter of 2024, American sports wagerers wagered $31.75 billion. Revenue from it was $3.16 billion for the quarter, increasing 35.3% from the previous year.
While the United States is at the top of the Biggest Gambling Countries in the World, there are still 12 states in the US that do not allow legal sports betting, including California, Texas, Idaho, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Nonetheless, sports betting is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at New Jersey’s Stockton University, which studies the gambling industry, points out that legal sports betting could be appealing to people with limited discretionary budgets since it offers a new and inexpensive form of entertainment.
Goldman Sachs Research also states that the U.S. sports betting market is expected to grow significantly and, once it reaches maturity, could reach $45 billion each year. This growth will be prompted by new state openings and a growing share of consumer spending on sports betting, per Ben Andrews, head of leisure and travel research at Goldman Sachs in Europe, where legal sports betting has a longer history.
When it comes to consumer spending on sports betting, gambling interest reflects a sport’s popularity, with NFL football dominating in the United States. In 2023, over 73 million Americans said they planned to bet on the NFL season, which is almost 60% more than the previous season, according to a survey conducted by the American Gaming Association.
Globally, nearly one-third of people worldwide engage in sports betting at some point in their lives, based on the TGM 2022 Global Gambling and Sports Betting Survey. In 2021, 17% of people bet on sports with friends (mainly on football and horse racing), while 35.44% bet on sports, and 20.2% bet online/through applications.
According to Deloitte’s 2024 Sports Industry Outlook, generative AI is projected to dramatically impact sports betting in the next 12-18 months. The way sports fans interact with sports betting will probably undergo a revolution because of innovations in domains like personalized betting experiences, odds calculation, real-time data analysis, and improved prediction models.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
A city skyline looking down on a busy racetrack with jockeys on horseback.
Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ:CHDN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31
Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ:CHDN) specializes in online wagering, casino gambling, horse racing, and racing bets. TwinSpires, a subsidiary, provides online horse racing betting.
Over the course of more than a decade, the company has grown its revenue and net income steadily across three business units: live and archived racing from twelve venues, including the Kentucky Derby’s home track, Churchill Downs. More than 42% of the entire yearly revenue is generated by this unit.
Through its Twin Spires platform, Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ:CHDN) principally concentrates its sports betting business on horse racing. The firm initially experimented with wider sports betting, but two years ago it decided to cease operations, citing expensive overhead and fierce competition from significant operators like DraftKings and FanDuel. Twin Spires now handles horse race betting completely and offers these industry leaders B2B data services. This strategy change has paid off, as Twin Spires now accounts for 12% of adjusted EBITDA and around 19% of CHDN’s overall revenue.
The London Company Mid Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ:CHDN) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ:CHDN) – CHDN outperformed in 2Q as recent results exceeded expectations, and the 150th Kentucky Derby delivered growth above expectations as well. Additionally, in our view the value creation from recent acquisitions is becoming clearer to the market. We continue to view CHDN as a high-quality business run by a management team with a track record of astute capital allocation and a strong pipeline of opportunities for continued growth.
Increased: Churchill Downs (CHDN) – The increase reflects our confidence in the long-term outlook for the business and our desire to reduce cash in the portfolio.”
CHDN is one of the Best Sports Betting Stocks to Buy Now. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group is the largest shareholder in the company, with 1,195,081 shares worth $166.83 million.
Overall CHDN ranks 7th on our list of the best sports betting stocks to buy. While we acknowledge the potential of CHDN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CHDN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: $30 Trillion Opportunity: 15 Best Humanoid Robot Stocks to Buy According to Morgan Stanley and Jim Cramer Says NVIDIA ‘Has Become A Wasteland’.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
