The new kid on the block in the Nevada sports betting scene now has the green light to open thanks to Silver State regulators, and just in time for football season.
- Boomer’s Sportsbook, led by Joe Asher, was approved by Nevada regulators to launch retail locations and a mobile app just in time for football season.
- The sportsbook aims to be Nevada’s only independent bookmaker, opening locations in Elko, Las Vegas, and Henderson, and offering competitive pricing and a strong leadership team.
- Asher expressed strong opposition to federally regulated prediction markets, emphasizing the importance of state-level control over gambling activities.
Members of the Nevada Gaming Commission met Thursday and approved horse racing and sports betting-related licenses for Boomer's Sportsbook, the Joe Asher-led effort that aims to be the state’s only independent bookmaker.
Asher, a former William Hill U.S. and IGT executive, told the commissioners the operator plans to open its retail sportsbooks at the (currently inactive) Commercial Casino in Elko on Aug. 1, and then a few days later at Ellis Island in Las Vegas and Casino Valle Verde in Henderson.
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Boomer’s also has a mobile sports betting app in the works that will use IGT technology. As with other legal online options in Nevada, users will have to register in-person at one of the physical Boomer's locations.
“We think there is room in the market for an independent operator, as William Hill was before it was acquired by Caesars, someone casinos can partner with for sports betting, but who is not a competitor to their core business,” Asher, the CEO of Boomer's, told the commission Thursday. “We think there is also room in the market for a new sportsbook at the business-to-consumer level.”
Thursday’s approval follows that of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) earlier this month, and puts Boomer’s on track to launch in advance of the uber-important football season.
The dream team
Asher told commissioners Boomer's worked with IGT on fine-tuning its Nevada sports betting app, such as making registrations simpler. Boomer’s also plans an enticing sign-up offer for new customers and attractive pricing made possible with what regulators called a “dream team” of employees, such as Hall of Fame bookmaker Nick Bogdanovich.
“It is, without question, the most talented team ever assembled for a venture like this in the state of Nevada,” Asher said.
While the gaming commission didn’t have too many concerns about Asher or Boomer’s, it did have some questions, including one about Asher’s thoughts on prediction markets. Those markets, namely ones the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) federally regulated, came into conflict with Nevada regulators over election and sports-related event contracts the exchanges offered.
Those contracts make it possible for prediction markets to offer online sports betting in the U.S. where state lawmakers and regulators don't necessarily permit it, or not necessarily in the way entities like Kalshi and Crypto.com are doing.
In March, the NGCB sent a cease-and-desist order to Kalshi, and Kalshi responded with a lawsuit. Thus far, the prediction market remains operational in Nevada amid the litigation, despite local gaming officials' concerns.
Boomer humor
Asher clearly sees things as local regulators do when it comes to prediction markets.
“The idea that somebody can have this hypothetical right to offer essentially unregulated gambling, or gambling supposedly under the auspices of a federal agency, is inconsistent with the longstanding policy in our country that gambling is essentially a matter that's regulated by the states,” he told commissioners.
Asher also said the idea of prediction markets offering de facto wagering on sports, permissible under CFTC regulations, would have likely been a “great surprise” to the U.S. Supreme Court's chief justice during the legal fight over the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
PASPA's overturn in 2018 paved the way for more states to legalize sports betting, and now most have in some form.
“Seems as though everybody was asleep, and sports betting was legal all along, but … under the auspices of the CFTC,” Asher said, tongue presumably in cheek. “That, to me, doesn't make much sense. I'm always in favor of gambling being something that is regulated. Should be regulated at the state level. That's been, historically, the practice, unless Congress makes a very clear and explicit decision otherwise. But whether it is this predictive markets or other form of unregulated gambling, I'm opposed.”
