College Basketball Crown
Betting on the inaugural College Basketball Crown is only being allowed in certain jurisdictions as gaming regulators told sportsbooks in several states to take the odds down on Monday.
DraftKings Sportsbook confirmed it has taken down the Crown betting odds across their entire network of states.
In an appearance on VSiN PrimeTime on Monday, Johnny Avello, head of DraftKings Sportsbook, told Matt Youmans and Tim Murray that some states ordered the takedown because the event wasn’t submitted for approval to their regulatory bodies. He later texted Youmans that the Crown won’t be offered in New Jersey, Ohio and Illinois.
“We’re waiting for approval before we put it up in a few other jurisdictions,” he wrote.
Update on Tuesday morning: IA, NY, PA, CO & AZ are all good for Crown betting, according to Avello.
Circa Sports, one of the sponsors of the event, is still taking bets in Nevada, Iowa, Colorado and Kentucky, but was asked to pull them down in Illinois.
The College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas is the first tournament of its kind to have a financial prize for its winners. This is a NIL-based event, with the champion taking home $500,000 in prize money through a “NIL package.” The runner-up gets $300,000, while the third and fourth-place teams get $50,000.
I jumped on a segment with Mitch Moss and Pauly Howard on Follow The Money shortly after a VSiN listener who goes by @bertwedemeyer31 on X alerted us that DraftKings and Fanduel had taken down all CBC games.
A Ohio resident on X, @rzrbladesports, said that their bets at Prime Sportsbook were voided and all of the other sportsbooks in the Buckeye State pulled the game lines.
