SportAD CEO John Brennan says FastPick is “as close to a traditional single-game play” as a gambler can find in legal gaming.
Resorts Casino Hotel launched a daily fantasy sports game on Monday. The game is called FastPick, which allows house-versus-gambler, head-to-head player matchups of real-world sports stars.
New Jersey legalized and regulated daily fantasy sports earlier this year. While the move opens the doors for daily fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings to offer licensed DFS gaming, casino companies now have the option to offer real money daily fantasy sports.
FastPick DFS at Resorts Casino
After a limited test-run on the site beginning in May 2017, FastPick is available for online gamblers who play on Resorts Casinos’ casino site. The casino plans to install FastPick in their brick-and-mortar gaming space, eventually.
Resorts Casino President Mark Giannantonio told the Associated Press in an interview, “I’m very excited about this new business. We expect it to be exciting for our online customers, and soon, for those who play at our casino. The idea has always been for the brick-and-mortar casino to be integrated as much as possible with our online business.”
FastPick Daily Fantasy Sports
FastPick is much different than the games offered at DraftKings and FanDuel. Traditional daily fantasy sports sites allow competitors to play against one or more other customers, while the site itself takes 10% of the cash to organize and administer the games through their software. Each side fields a starting lineup of 9 players in the most popular game, fantasy football.
The contest in FastPick is more like a parlay bet in sports betting. Players are given matchups between individual players in NFL games (in the fantasy football version of the game). The example given is Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. In a typical FastPick contest, a player can wager on whether Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers will have a better game that week.
FastPick Is Like a Parlay Bet
To win a game of FastPick, the wagerer has to win at least 3 of these 50/50 matchups. For instance, a player also might have the choice between Ezekiel Elliott or Le’Veon Bell and between Odell Beckham Jr. or Antonio Brown. If a player selects Tom Brady, Ezekiel Elliott, and Odell Beckham in a FastPick contest, all three of those players must win their matchup for the player to win — much like a parlay bet would work.
If the gambler wants a bigger payout, then that gambler can choose whether to have more head-to-head contests in the bet. That might sound next-to-impossible for a larger group of contests, but readers must remember that they are not betting on Brady-vs-Rodgers in a vacuum. The bettor will know the defense each NFL player is against, whether they are playing at home or on the road, what the weather is like, and whether one or both players is fighting an injury.
In short, a skillful FastPick gambler might be able to make multiple advantage picks, once they see the various betting options. While such a game always requires some luck, that’s why they call it gambling. Also, The casino is going to have the edge, like they do in the vast bulk of wagers. More than that, a lot of bad players are not going to make advantage picks, so they’ll need significant luck to win (and won’t win consistently).
Who Designed FastPick?
FastPick is the creation of John Brennan, the CEO of Sports AD. Sport AD offers head-to-head matchups involving NFL, NBA, MLB, soccer, cricket, and eSports. Sport AD also offers its customers social gaming and eGaming coverage, too.
When FastPick was first announced, John Brennan told ESPN that he invented FastPick as an alternative to traditional DFS gaming.
In the interview, John Brennan said, “We wanted to get something as close to a traditional single-game play as we [could], but still have it be compliant with fantasy rules. I think this is as close as you can get right now. Licensed gaming operators want to offer daily fantasy sports and they want to do it differently to FanDuel and DraftKings.”
Resorts Casino Online
Resorts Casino is the leader in Atlantic City’s online poker niche, because it partners with Amaya Gaming and PokerStars for its Internet poker site. Borgata was the leader in New Jersey’s online poker industry until the Resorts Casino/PokerStars portal opened in March 2016. The new competitor immediately seized first place in the market.
Resorts Casino’s current owner, Morris Bailey, has an unbroken history of success in Atlantic City. Bailey and a business partner bought Resorts Casino in 2010 in a bankruptcy auction. When the partner died in 2012, Morris Bailey hired Mohegan Sun to operate the land-based casino. With Mohegan Sun’s experience in the casino business and large database of live players, Resorts Casino became a profitable land-based casino.
Morris Bailey used the same strategy in New Jersey’s online gambling industry, signing a partnership deal with PokerStars in June 2013. When the Division of Gaming Enforcement suspended PokerStars’ application in October 2013, Morris Bailey had to practice patience and belief in making an arrangement with an industry leader. He waited two years for the DGE to approve PokerStars’ license, then another half-year before the site launch.
New Jersey Sports Betting
FastPick is the closest thing to legal sports betting in New Jersey at the moment. The state’s appeal of its challenge to the Professional and Amateur Sports Betting Act (PASPA) of 1992 is currently being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. If a majority of the 9 Supreme Court justices agree to New Jersey’s interpretation of federal sports betting laws, land-based sports betting would become legal at Resorts Casino’s brick-and-mortar casino. Online sports betting still would be illegal, due to the 1961 Wire Act and the 2006 UIGEA law.
