Gaming stocks were under pressure last week, and the Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF fell by over 3.5%, compared with the S&P 500 Index’s 1.9% decline. It was the second consecutive week in which BETZ underperformed the broad-based index, extending its year-to-date (YTD) decline to over 10%.
Playtika Holdings and Red Rock Resorts were among the major gainers last week, while Light & Wonder Inc and Gambling.com were among the major losers.
Major Gainers
Playtika Holdings (NYSE: PLTK) +9.74%
With nearly double-digit gains, Playtika Holdings was the biggest gainer in our coverage of gaming stocks last week. Notably, Playtika hit a low of $2.64 in early April amid concerns over the sustainability of its business. Later that month, it announced a “review of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value.”
The company has formed a special committee of independent directors that is tasked with “conducting a comprehensive review and evaluation of strategic alternatives across its portfolio.”
The stock has been quite volatile since then, alternating between the week’s top losers and gainers. It made it to the list of top gainers in the preceding week as well, despite there being no major market-moving announcement.
Red Rock Resorts Inc (NYSE: RRR) +9.67%
Red Rock Resorts also lost nearly 10% last week and is now positive for the year with a YTD gain of 8.6%. Over half of last week’s gains came on Friday, after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the stock with a “Buy” rating and a $72 target price. Goldman believes RRR is trading at attractive valuations given its growth profile, and the recent slump in the stock has created a good buying opportunity.
Goldman’s note pointed out that the regional gaming sector is experiencing a broader resurgence. Increased merger and acquisition (M&A) activity across the casino space is effectively putting a solid floor under company valuations, making regional players like RRR highly attractive to institutional investors looking for stable upside.
The brokerage also initiated Penn Entertainment with a “Buy” rating. In her note, Goldman analyst Lizzie Dove said, “We see PENN as one of the most compelling risk/rewards in the gaming sector, with its regional business at an inflection point, helped by new projects and Interactive turning a corner, with an attractive [free cash flow] yield.” Penn closed the week over 2% higher despite the sector sell-off.
Rush Street Interactive (NYSE: RSI) +8.49%
Rush Street Interactive stock rose nearly 8.5% last week and extended its YTD gains to an impressive 62%. RSI was officially included in the S&P SmallCap 600 index on Monday, June 22. Index inclusion is usually a positive catalyst because it forces passive index funds, ETFs, and institutional managers who track the benchmark to mechanically buy large tranches of the stock to rebalance their portfolios, generating heavy buying volume.
Notably, RSI stock has seen buying interest since it filed for Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) licenses earlier this month, specifically requesting both a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license and a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) permit.
Biggest Losers
Light & Wonder Inc (ASX: LNW) -13.68%
With a loss of nearly 14% last week, Light & Wonder was the biggest loser in our coverage of gaming stocks. There wasn’t any major company-specific news last week, and LNW continued its dismal 2026 run, extending its YTD decline to nearly 30%. Brokerages are quite bullish on the stock, though, and their mean target price of AUD 175.96 is nearly 60% higher than the current price.
Gambling.com (NYSE: GAMB) -9.75%
Gambling.com continued to see selling pressure and lost nearly 10% of its market cap last week. The stock is now around 82% from its 52-week high. There wasn’t any major company-specific event last week, but the decline reflected the structural weakness that GAMB has been battling over the last few months.
Gambling.com relies heavily on organic search traffic to direct users to gambling and sports betting sites. Recent updates to Google’s search algorithms have severely hurt the company’s organic visibility. To offset losing this free organic traffic, the company had to rapidly scale up paid marketing channels, which has compressed its profit margins.
To make matters worse, during the Q1 2026 earnings call, the company lowered its annual guidance to $165 million to $170 million, down from the previous $170 million to $180 million.
Gambling.com also announced a 25% reduction of its workforce in May, which it says would help deliver $13 million in annualized savings. However, the massive layoffs were seen as a sign that the company is moving into a defensive survival mode rather than scaling organically.
Robinhood (NYSE: HOOD) -8.75%
Robinhood stock lost nearly 9% last week after being the top gainer in the preceding week. The stock was quite volatile last week and fell sharply after the company announced a $2 billion capital raise through a convertible note offering. It’s not unusual for stocks to fall after such raises, even though the company announced the purchase of capped calls and a share repurchase to offset the share dilution.
Reports of Meta Platforms exploring a standalone prediction market app also put pressure on Robinhood, whose prediction market business has been hitting record volumes.
Meanwhile, Robinhood recovered slightly on Friday following a bullish note from BTIG, which initiated coverage on the stock with a “Buy” rating and a $125 target price. While HOOD trades at a premium to other listed fintech peers, BTIG believes the premium is “warranted” given the kind of growth the company brings to the table.
Major Gaming Industry Developments
Data released last week showed that New Jersey online gambling revenue hit a record $276.3 million in May, signaling strong consumer demand for iGaming platforms.
Data released by the Public Security Police Force showed that Macau tourist arrivals rose 3.4% in May. Also, the total tourist footfall reached 20 million on June 20, 18 days earlier than in 2025. However, Typhoon Mekkhala has hurt revenues in recent days. Moreover, analysts believe that the ongoing FIFA World Cup is also drawing money away from the region’s gambling tables.
Talking of FIFA, the event is turning out to be a bonanza for traditional sportsbooks as well as prediction platforms piggybacking on its popularity. Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon believes global wagers at this year’s FIFA World Cup could rise to a record $50 billion versus the $35 billion in the 2022 event.
In its statement to Reuters, a Flutter Entertainment spokesperson said, “We’re expecting the World Cup to be the biggest betting event of all time given the extended format as well as the benefit of it being partly hosted in our key market, the U.S.”
Rockstar Games officially opened global pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI on June 25, 2026, confirming the final price tiers and its November 19, 2026, launch date. The standard edition is priced at $79.99, while the ultimate edition is priced at $99.99.
For fans buying the physical box at retail, there is no physical disc inside. The retail box contains a digital download code instead, allowing physical buyers to take advantage of the digital pre-load window starting November 12, 2026.
Optimism over Grand Theft Auto VI has incidentally triggered a buying spree in Take-Two Interactive shares in recent weeks.
Prediction Market Developments
Last week, DraftKings officially unveiled its new proprietary markets exchange, DKeX. It is fully licensed by the CFTC. By bringing this infrastructure entirely in-house, DraftKings eliminates its reliance on third-party marketplaces, cuts out external exchange fees, and vertically integrates its “DraftKings Predictions” business directly into its primary Sports & Casino app.
Notably, prediction markets are growing at a stellar pace, but the nascent sector is also prone to fraud. Last week, Polymarket found itself under intense viral and media scrutiny following a Wall Street Journal investigation into an alleged coordinated “fake bet” marketing campaign, casting a spotlight on the platform’s user-metric reporting. Concurrently, the sector has been battling allegations of insider trading, particularly involving government officials privy to non-public information.
In its statement to CNBC, Polymarket said, “We are conducting a comprehensive audit of active promotional content to ensure it complies with our standards, as well as applicable regulatory and legal disclosure requirements.”
On a related note, Polymarket is reportedly under investigation by the CFTC, even though it’s unclear whether the investigation began before or after the WSJ investigation.
There is also a turf war between states and the CFTC over the regulation of prediction markets. The CFTC is aggressively doubling down on the view that sports “event contracts” fall strictly under its federal jurisdiction, drawing sharp anger from state regulators and tribal governments who argue this is illegal gambling that bypasses state laws.
Last week, the CFTC said that it is suing Kentucky after the state filed lawsuits against Kalshi and Polymarket. Meanwhile, a group of 17 Democratic Party Senators asked a Senate subcommittee to ban the CFTC from using federal funds to fuel prediction market-related legal battles.
The legal battle has shown no signs of abating, and Kalshi sued Illinois last week over the state’s proposals for tax and licensing requirements. The company argued that CFTC should exclusively regulate event contracts and said, “This action challenges the State of Illinois’s clear violation of the Supremacy Clause with respect to the regulation of event contracts.”
