Topgolf, which has some 50 nationwide up-market driving ranges, is getting into bed with New Jersey sports betting.
This innovative group which has rapidly been growing its forms of entertainment has announced plans to link up with PointsBet.
PointsBet, which was founded in Australia, launched the latest of New Jersey’s nine legal sportsbooks in January.
Both of Topgolf’s two driving ranges in New Jersey already have sports bars. The plan now is to expand them into sports betting lounges heavily rebranded with PointsBetting signage.
The lounges, which will provide wide TV sports coverage along with extensive betting odds, won’t have betting windows.
Instead, punters will need to place their bets on their smartphones or mobile tablets. PointsBet is a fully licensed online sportsbook operator offering apps for both Apple and Android mobile devices.
It also offers a form of betting unavailable at New Jersey’s other sportsbooks.
This is points betting from whence it gets its name.
Points betting can pay more
Points betting not only rewards gamblers for getting the result right, but also for their degree of rightness. In other words, a punter whose team wins by 10 is paid more than a 5-point winner.
This uniqueness is in line with the creative philosophy of Yu Chiang Cheng, president of Topgolf Media. He believes driving ranges should be a place where you can do a lot more than work at your golf swing.
“This (move) helps highlight that we are not just a place to hit golf balls,” he said.
Topgolf’s 50 high-tech, ball-tracking driving ranges now also serve as a food and entertainment chain with sports bars, restaurants, and fast-food outlets, pool halls, arcades, and music venues.
They will now begin offering sports betters everything they need and more – and New Jersey is just for starters. In time Topgolf is looking to follow this formula in every US state where sports betting is legal.
PointsBet won’t be opening betting shops at Topgolf locations. They will have to compete online with other New Jersey’s sportsbooks like market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, or Sugarhouse and StarBets.
But Johnny Aitken, PointsBet’s US chief executive officer said he believed its branded presence at Topgolf would be huge. He added, ‘And this in “two of the most trafficked entertainment venues in the states.”
“We believe that the modern American sports consumer will now enjoy a fully integrated viewing experience. It brings together retail and mobile, and this is a strategy we will look to duplicate in other jurisdictions,” Aitken said.
PointsBet is an Australia-based company founded in 2017. It has disclosed that it paid out more than $300 million to gamblers in that country in 2018. It opened a New Jersey office in November and officially launched its first US sportsbook there in January.
It is currently looking into which other states it could profitably expand into.