DraftKings, one of New Jersey’s most successful sportsbooks, will open its first New York betting station on Friday (September 23).
This will be at up-state New York’s del Lago Casino in Waterloo. It’ll be the third licensed NY Casino to offer sports-betting since the state legalized it earlier this year. The other two are Tioga Downs and Rivers Casino Resort.
At present, as NY’s pro-sportsbook lobby haggles with its state governor, online betting is not yet legal. DraftKings will initially conduct all betting on an in-person basis from a 6,000 ft betting lounge at the Casino.
To make a place for the lounge, del Lago temporarily removed 1,650 slots and 66 table games from its Casino.
“Once construction is complete, we will probably increase (gaming capacity) again,” said Del Lago spokesman Steven Greenberg in April.
Me0anwhile, on Friday at noon, representatives of DraftKingsand del Lago will attend a ribbon-cutting and first bet ceremony.
Former Syracuse and NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb will place the historic, first wager. The retired football star won’t be allowed to wager on his alma mater, though. As it is in New Jersey, betting on in-state college sport is also prohibited in the state of New York.
New York is 3rd US State with a DraftKings sportsbook
New York will be the third state in which DraftKingswill operate a sportsbook. Pennsylvania, where online betting is now allowed, will be the fourth when it opens in the very near future.
The sports fantasy giant’s first sportsbook launched out of Resorts Casino in Atlantic City in New Jersey. Its second saw it partnered with the Scarlet Pearl in Mississippi.
In terms of handle, it is currently New Jersey’s second-biggest. It can also lay claim to being the first of the Garden States’ online sportsbook to launch. And this in the first state to legalize sports betting after they scrapped the law forbidding in May 2018.
DraftKingsis clearly looking at the future, not the present, with its New York launch.
Something like 80% of its New Jersey handle comes out of online betting made with mobile apps. And New Jersey has just over 9 million residents as compared with New York State’s close to 20 million.
Without online betting, DraftKings must expect business at del Lago to initially be slow. And this is especially so as the Casino is some way from the City of New York and its 8-plus million people.
Right now, residents of the ‘Big Apple’ find it more convenient to cross the Hudson River and make mobile phone bets. This, of course, so as to get around the Federal Wire Act, which prevents online betting across state lines.
