Investment firm Roundhill Investments launched its new Sports Betting and iGaming ETF (exchange-traded fund) a week ago, ready to capitalize on the return of global sports competitions and, subsequently, global sports gambling. As far as timing goes, the BETZ ETF could not have been introduced at a more appropriate moment, as major sports organizations around the world are now starting to come back to life. As a result, the level of interest in the ETF has been off the charts and it is already experiencing major positive gains since launching last Thursday.
In just the first day of being live, BETZ enjoyed over $17 million in shares traded. The next day, the figure jumped to $50 million. As of this past Tuesday, a total of 1.14 million shares had been traded, equaling around $19 million in volume. Given that most ETFs, when first launched, are typically received with much skepticism and weak attention, the response to BETZ is made even more poignant. Add into the mix the fact that Roundhill only has one other ETF, the BITKRAFT Esports and Digital Entertainment ETF, and the results show an even greater amount of interest on the part of investors to get going with the explosive growth expected in sports gambling.
Even Roundhill has been somewhat surprised by the results. Co-founder and CIO Tim Maloney asserts, “Even in our wildest dreams, we didn’t envision five-odd million shares over three days trading.” He explains that there are primarily three reasons for the response: more investors at home due to the coronavirus lockdown, more time on the part of the investors to perform due diligence on investment vehicles and the increase of the “Robinhood” investor – the latter a reference to the rise in popularity of the online trading platform. He adds, “We create products that really make sense to a retail-skewed demographic, and we want to empower them to invest what they know.”
BETZ has three segments in its coverage. The first includes sports gambling and iGaming operators, the second covers entities that are heavily, but not solely, involved in the industry and the third covers companies that have some relation to the industry. 30 stocks are included in the fund, led by both DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel. Both are making waves in the sports gambling market across the US thanks to new deals and offerings as the country continues to expand its legal sports gambling market and account for a total of 12% of the ETF. GAN Ltd., which is beginning to gain a lot of ground in the gaming ecosystem, controls 5% of the fund.