West Virginia Sports Betting market soon to be highly competitive. The West Virginia Lottery Commission, the overseer of the gambling activity in the state, on Wednesday, was informed that Greenbrier Resorts and its BetMGM partner are planning to launch the second online casino app.
BetMGM is the joint venture between MGM Resorts and UK-based GVC Holdings. BetMGM launched the sports betting with Greenbrier in January, this year. The Greenbrier on the other hand has a sports betting pact with Flutter Entertainment’s Fan Duel. Fan Duel was the first to launch last year.
DraftKings launched the first online casino of West Virginia in mid-July this year in Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino at Charlestown Races. The West Virginia Lottery Commission also announced the turnover of $37.2mn for the first month of online casino and revenue of $825K.
Three active sportsbooks reported a wagering handle of $15mn and revenue of just over $1.4mn in July. The report suggests that 70% of the handle and 54% of revenue came from digital channels.
The sports betting at Delaware North’s two West Virginia properties are preparing to reopen after a long wait. The Mardi Gras and Wheeling Island Casinos offer both online and land-based casinos through Mionmi Gaming. The betting was shut down as Mionmi was entangled with a third-party supplier resulting in lawsuits.
The Lottery Director of West Virginia, John Myers confirmed that Mardi Gras would reopen on August 27 while Wheeling Island is set to reopen on September 2. The openings would be soft openings and no promotion would be done for IGT-powered product, confirmed Myers.
On the other hand, The Mountaineer Racetrack and Casino are all set to open. The betting partner William Hill is now testing the betting app confirmed the commission.
Ken Greear, WV Lottery Chair has showered praises on the staff for overseeing the launch of iGaming and sports betting despite the pandemic.
Source: https://calvinayre.com/2020/08/26/business/west-virginia-igaming-sports-betting-more-competitive/