BetMGM Posts Two AI Executive Roles as Profit Pressure Mounts and $500M Target Slips

Key Points

• BetMGM is hiring an SVP of Business Transformation & AI Strategy, with a compensation package up to $371,000, and a Director of AI Platform & Portfolio Delivery, with a compensation package up to $230,000.
• The company’s CEO, Adam Greenblatt, referred to AI as a “fundamental disruptor” on Q2’s earnings call but did not elaborate on his plans, even while the company saw its adjusted EBITDA fall 15% year-over-year to $74 million.
• Its archrival DraftKings already has shifted 70% of its marketing budget planning into its AI systems, and reduced its staff by 5% in February 2026.

BetMGM Is Paying Up to $371,000 for an AI Executive. That Number Tells You Something

But two postings made by BetMGM speak louder on the subject matter than the company CEO did during his Q2 earnings call. The joint venture of MGM Resorts and Entain is currently seeking out a Senior Vice President of Business Transformation and AI Strategy, paying between $269,925 and $371,000 per year, and a Director of AI Platform and Portfolio Delivery, compensating at a rate between $176,240 and $230,000 per year. Neither of those positions was disclosed previously.

Compensation ranges themselves tell a story. Offering an executive-level position for over $370,000 a year in a business which has seen a 15% decline year-over-year in adjusted EBITDA cannot be considered anything else but a strategic investment.

What the Job Ads Actually Reveal?

The SVP posting goes further than any public statement BetMGM has made on AI. Given the job description, the most suitable candidate is someone who can use artificial intelligence as a strategic tool to change how the company operates through business process reengineering, decision-making, and scaling. Some of the duties that this job entails include developing a transformation strategy that spans many years, identifying profitable business opportunities where value can be created, investing in AI, and changing the way work is done.

This position falls just below this one in terms of hierarchy and is responsible for developing an ordered portfolio of AI initiatives for BetMGM based on its AI strategy. Together, the two positions suggest BetMGM is building a dedicated internal function rather than distributing AI responsibilities across existing departments.

Specific use cases named in the SVP listing include customer growth, retention, risk, compliance, operational efficiency, and decision support — which fills in the gaps that Greenblatt left open during the earnings call.

Greenblatt Signalled AI Plans Without Explaining Them

On the Q2 earnings call, Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon pressed Greenblatt on the company’s AI positioning across iGaming content, CRM, and customer acquisition. Greenblatt confirmed progress but stopped short of detail. “Of course, there will be tactical moves, as we’ve discussed. As we’ve just talked about, there will be tactical areas of impact, but in terms of how the business is managed, AI, I believe, will be a fundamental disruptor over time, and we’ll talk about that more when our plans are more real, we’ll get into that,” he said.

The phrasing “when our plans are more real” is notable. It suggests the company is in active planning rather than execution, which is consistent with hiring at the strategy-definition level rather than the engineering level. The SVP role, as described, is expected to set the vision before others build it.

The Financial Context That Makes This Urgent

The second quarter update of BetMGM for 2026 came out on 28th July, reflecting a total net revenue of $711 million which is 3% higher than last year’s. While the above statement stood true, the same could not be said about profits. The adjusted EBITDA saw a decrease from $86 million to $74 million, which is a 15% decline from last year.

More consequentially, the company formally deferred its $500 million adjusted EBITDA target, which had already been pushed from 2026 to 2027 during an earlier revision. BetMGM now says the target will extend “beyond current 2027 expectations,” attributing the delay to prediction market pressure and regulatory complexity. The operator had previously told investors in Q1 2026 that it remained on the pathway to $500 million by 2027.

Prediction platforms such as Kalshi have been absorbing a growing share of US sports betting volume. During the World Cup, prediction market activity is estimated to have reached roughly 27% of all legal US sports betting volume, up from 9% at the start of 2026. Greenblatt was direct about the scale of the problem: “Competition is fierce, it’s tough out there. On the OSB side, the primary macro impacts are prediction markets, but then of course, gas prices don’t help, and consumer discretionary income is a factor.”

When revenue growth narrows and the long-term profit timeline slips, cost-side efficiency becomes critical. AI is the most credible lever BetMGM can reach for.

DraftKings Has Already Been There

The competitive comparison BetMGM’s leadership will have been watching closely is DraftKings. In February 2026, DraftKings restructured its workforce, with Citizens analyst Jordan Bender estimating the reduction could approach 5% of employees and generate annual savings of approximately $30 million based on a median salary of $100,000.

Bender’s investor note outlined what DraftKings was already doing with AI by that point: writing RFPs, helping engineers produce code, deploying chatbots, and drafting preliminary legal opinions — all reducing reliance on outsourced labour. Roughly 70% of DraftKings’ promotional spending decisions were being made by AI models, with Bender noting that proportion was set to rise. “Overall, we could expect more cost structure rationalisation in the coming quarters to years as the business continues to benefit from AI and maturing markets,” Bender wrote.

BetMGM’s Q2 2026 iGaming net revenue rose 8% to $483 million, driven by a performance that Greenblatt credited to strong engagement around the World Cup and NBA playoffs. Online sports net revenue was flat at $228 million. Average monthly active customers fell 3% to 875,000.

Expert Analysis

BetMGM’s AI hiring is best read as a response to margin compression, not to innovation ambition. When the sector’s two major operators, DraftKings and BetMGM, both point to AI as a cost structure tool within months of each other, the message is the same regardless of the framing: growth rates are decelerating, prediction markets are stealing share, and the companies that survive the squeeze will be those that extract more output from fewer resources. The SVP role’s mandate to govern “decision rights” and “adoption of new ways of working” is corporate language for headcount rationalisation down the line. The question is not whether BetMGM will reduce its cost base through AI; Greenblatt all but confirmed that direction by refusing to elaborate. The question is how quickly the two new hires can convert a roadmap into savings that show up in EBITDA.