Week 16 of the National Football League season saw two key matchups air on Saturday, Dec. 23 and three games on Monday, Dec. 25, adding to the full lineup of games Sunday and stretching primetime matchups for media companies and sports bettors.
One analyst highlights how sportsbooks may have cleaned up over the holidays.
The DraftKings Analyst: Needham analyst Bernie McTernan has a Buy rating and a price target of $50 on DraftKings Inc DKNG.
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The Analyst Takeaways: McTernan has been tracking the influence of NFL weeks on sportsbooks and how the launch of ESPN Bet could impact the dominance of DraftKings and FanDuel in the sports betting sector.
"For game results, it was a good weekend for the sportsbook and likely one of the better weekends of the year with only 2 of the top 5 favorites winning outright, and none covering the spread," McTernan said.
The Denver Broncos were seven-point favorites against the New England Patriots in the Sunday Night Football matchup and lost 26-23.
The Kansas City Chiefs were 10-point favorites against the Las Vegas Raiders in the Christmas Day game on CBS, a unit of Paramount Global PARAPARAA. The Raiders won the game 20-14.
A game that aired exclusively on Comcast Corporation CMCSA owned streaming platform Peacock Saturday saw the Buffalo Bills win narrowly 24-22 against the Los Angeles Chargers as 12.5-point favorites.
The San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens matched up in the Monday Night Football game on ABC and Disney+, which are units of The Walt Disney Company DIS. The Ravens won the battle between the 11-3 teams, despite the 49ers being six point favorites.
The Philadelphia Eagles had the biggest spread of the week, favored by 13.5 points against the New York Giants. The Eagles won the game by eight points, failing to cover the spread.
The analyst also tracks the iOS app rankings for sports betting operators in the sports category. Since launching in November, ESPN Bet from PENN Entertainment PENN has ranked as the number one overall sports app. The app fell to second place for the week behind daily fantasy app PrizePicks.
The DraftKings app ranked third for the week for a second straight week. Flutter Entertainment PDYPY owned FanDuel ranked fourth among sports apps, gaining from sixth place in the previous week.
McTernan said promotional activity from sportsbooks remained the same, with DraftKings offering $150 in bonus bets for new customers who bet $5. ESPN Bet's initial offers of $200 in bonus bets and up to $1,000 deposit match remain in place.
"We see DKNG as a leader in the emerging North America online gambling market, a $35B market opportunity. Within this market, we believe DKNG has a sustainable customer acquisition strategy that should continue to drive its first- or second-place position in all states."
DKNG Price Action: DraftKings shares trade at $35.60 versus a 52-week trading range of $10.69 to $39.35. Shares of DraftKings are up 220% year-to-date in 2023.
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