Most people already know that Bally’s Interactive is the parent company of Bally Bet; what they probably do not know is that the company recently applied for a Management Service Provider license from the Illinois Gaming Board. Following this action, the Ball Bet brand has joined a long list of reputable operators who are all eager to get a piece of the sports betting pie cooking in Illinois.
By acquiring this Management Service Provider license, a sportsbook earns the single most important legal pass needed to offer online sports betting in the Prairie State. This is a transparent process for the application all through and all who are interested are able to view the status of all other parties vying for the same. According to details made available through the IGB, the current status of Bally Bet’s application is ‘Applicant’.
Bally Bet is not the only casino business that has been commissioned from the stable. It is not clear whether the licensed that has been applied for will be tethered to the casino in downtown Chicago or whether its operations will be based out of its Rock Island Casino in Quad Cities.
It is important to note that Bally Bet Sportsbook holds a valid operations license that allows it to offer offers legal sports betting in five states in addition to Chicago (Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, New York, and Virginia). Some of the major brands that are still warming the queue in Illinois are WynnBET, Circa Sports, and Unibet.
Some of these sportsbooks that have already been granted their license had been on the list for a very long time. If this long waiting period is part of the protocol then Bally Bet has a long wait before they are licensed. For Circa (with active operations in Nevada, Colorado, and Iowa), the applicant stage ended in mid June having started in November 2021. The brand has plans to tether its mobile wagering to the Full House Resorts casino that will be situated in Waukegan.
The long wait for WynnBet also started in November 2021 and this case is still on the waiting list. The operator is yet to disclose to the market what plans it has for tethering its operations to a casino. The Illinois market is the 10th jurisdiction in which WynnBET seeks to establish itself having grown a base in Arizona, Indiana, Colorado, Michigan, Louisiana, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia.
According to data provided by the IGB, Unibet has featured on the applicants’ list since November 16, 2020. Insider information reveals that the company has planned to tether its mobile operations to the Argosy Casino in Alton. Unibet has set up operations in various states in the US namely, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, and Arizona.
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Making money in Illinois
Since the state of Illinois is an established market and is top 3 in terms of overall handle, it makes sense that there is quite a long list of operators trying to get in. This is possible even though the state can only boast of seven statewide operators.
There is no doubt that Illinois is one of the most profitable gambling markets in the country – it is a member of a club of states that managed to effortlessly exceed the $1-billion mark in total sports betting revenue. The other members of this club comprise New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Illinois managed to join this league within 27 months of legalizing gambling operations.
Tough economic times are also felt in the gambling industry and the Land of Lincoln was not immune to the slowdown that drove down sports betting figures across the nation in summer. This was not a good enough reason for the casino operators in the state to let down their guard; July reported the third-highest handle in the country of $516.4 million which resulted in revenue of $46.1 million.
Looking at the leaderboard of Illinois with attention to July, the top entry which ordinarily catches the eye is FanDuel. The company managed to accumulate bets worth $169.9 million from mobile wagering. This figure also comprises of collections that resulted in income from retail sportsbook at the Fairmount Park racetrack. At the second position of the board was DraftKings which operates out of the Ameristar Casino Hotel in East Chicago. For this business, the report that resulted from activities in that month captured a handle of $155.9 million. At third place was BetRivers Casino that is aligned with Rivers Casino Des Plaines. The casino managed to handle $61.6 million from wagers.
In other news, it has been reported that horse tracks, sports venues and casinos in Illinois will be allowed to operate in the mobile betting space as long as a single mobile brand (skin) is to each entity. If an operator gets three mobile only licenses, it will not be necessary to get into an agreement with existing casino license holder. All three licenses in such a case will cost a total of $20 million as opposed to $10 million which is the charge to organizational (sports venues) or owners (casinos, racetracks) license.
Currently, one horse racing track and seven casinos are licensed have received the required approval to trade in retail sports wagers. Hawthorne Race Course is at the moment the only horse racing track that is offering retail wagering for sports in Illinois. The next brand that is lined up to receive approval is the Fairmount Park. Arlington Park is in the news for having withdrawn its application for a sports wagering license. In its case however, parent company Churchill Downs Inc. is a majority shareholder in Rivers Casino Des Plaines.
Final Thoughts
The number of mobile betting operators in Illinois is currently six. This number is changing soon because PointsBet will be launching through Hawthorne in the third quarter of the year, and Caesars Sportsbook doing likewise through Grand Victoria Casino less than a week later. Barstool Sportsbook is the newest entrant to the Illinois market. It managed to go live in the state by partnering with the Penn National casino company, which owns three gambling properties in Illinois.
