Colorado Loses Third Sports Betting Operator as SI Sportsbook Exits

The Centennial State has lost yet another online sportsbook.

SI Sportsbook announced on Wednesday that operations in Colorado had ceased. The operator has removed all bets from its sportsbook and removed the option for customers to make deposits. The platform will be the third operator to exit the market this month, following Betsafe and Clutchbet. 

The exit of SI Sportsbooks leaves Colorado with 15 online operators. It leaves the operator with just two active markets: Michigan and Virginia. 

SI Sportsbook Continues to Decline

The Colorado exit is another failure for SI Sportsbooks as their customer base continues to drink. The operator had hoped scaling back operations would help them improve their product and allow them to expand once again. However, it doesn’t appear the strategy has worked. 

The Colorado Division of Gaming does not release revenue numbers for each online sportsbook, meaning we don’t know precisely where SI Sportsbooks stood in the market. However, their struggles in other markets suggest they likely ranked towards the bottom.

SI Brand Controversy Likely Hurt Sportsbook

The Sports Illustrated brand has been one of the biggest in the country for decades, but that has changed after the explosion of online sports media. That led to readers canceling subscriptions to the once-great magazine, pushing the brand to expand elsewhere.

Launching a sportsbook with 888Sport was an attempt to take the brand in a new direction, allowing them to survive the change in how the public consumers get their sports news. The company hoped the SI brand would give them an edge in the emerging industry, but that hasn’t been the case.

The brand took a big blow recently when it was revealed that Sports Illustrated used AI for most of its articles. The company created fake writer profiles and passed the AI pieces as belonging to them, but the shady practice was discovered, leading to bad publicity. 

While the SI Sportsbook was struggling before the scandal, the story depleted what was left of its legendary brand.

Colorado Market Continues to Lose Operators

The Centennial State has set up one of the country's most impressive sports betting markets, allowing for far more operators than others. That has made the state a sort of testing ground for many smaller operators, but that time may now be at an end.

DraftKings and FanDuel dominate the market share like every other US market. That leaves more than a dozen other operators to compete for around 15%-20%. The result is several smaller operators exiting the market, three of which have gone in the last month.