The first legal sports bets in Mississippi were "placed simultaneously in Biloxi and Tunica" at 12:00pm CT yesterday, according to Mary Perez of the Biloxi SUN HERALD. Wagers were made at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi and the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica to "make Mississippi the fourth state to allow sports betting." The Coast nightclub at the Beau Rivage was "transformed into the Sports Book & Bar" in time for yesterday's opening. With about 18 TV screens, "oversized theater seating and a bar that wraps around most of the room, it’s ready for the start of football season." Former NFLers Willis McGahee and Robert Royal, and oddsmaker Danny Sheridan were among those "making the first seven bets the Beau Rivage." Sports betting is "expected to draw fans from several states away." Mississippi Gaming Commission Exec Dir Allen Godfrey said more casinos will open their sports book “in the near future." Perez notes some of the casinos will have to "wait until after the Aug. 16 meeting of the Gaming Commission if they are partnering with William Hill or one of the other sports book operators" (Biloxi SUN HERALD, 8/2). In Birmingham, Warren Kulo noted Sheridan was asked to "place the first college football bets" (AL.com, 8/1).
PLACE YOUR BETS: In Memphis, Mark Giannotto in a front-page piece notes some elected officials and former NFLer Stanley Morgan "attended the event outside Tunica and cast the ceremonial first bets." The Sports Book at Gold Strike was "built within the pre-existing restaurant next to the lobby of the casino." There are "several screens up front with betting odds and 20 flat screen televisions surrounding a room of booths and tables for visitors to watch the games." For now, customers can "only place bets in person." But soon, Gold Strike will have "mobile betting capabilities to allow bettors to place bets on their cell phone." Gold Strike President & COO David Tsai said that the casino is also in the "preliminary stages of creating a more permanent location for its sports book." But they only had 60 days to "put this all together" (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 8/2).
NO LIMIT: ESPN.com's David Purdum noted Mississippi is the "first state outside of Nevada to allow bets on in-state colleges like Ole Miss and Mississippi State." It also is the "first state with legal sports betting in the college football hotbed of the Southeast." While New Jersey and Delaware "prohibit wagers on games involving instate schools," Mississippi will "offer betting on all professional and college teams" (ESPN.com, 8/1).
PALM OF YOUR HAND: DraftKings yesterday unveiled its new sports betting product, DraftKings Sportsbook, to New Jersey-based users. The product features a wide variety of moneyline and prop bets and parlay wagers, and makes DraftKings the first to market in the state with a mobile and online sportsbook offering. Other states are expected to be folded into DraftKings Sportsbook as regulations allow. The product contains various integrations with DraftKings’ core daily fantasy and DraftKings Live apps. Those integrations, and connections to the company’s base of funded DFS accounts, represent key sources of customer acquisition in the newly opened sports wagering landscape. DraftKings expects use of DraftKings Sportsbook to be predominantly mobile, as 90% of traffic to its DFS games arrives via mobile. DraftKings Sportsbook will be available initially on an invite-only basis before being open more broadly to the public, likely within a few days (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).
