Draftkings Sportsbook Legal

Posted on |

Draftkings

  1. Draftkings Sportsbook Legal States
  2. What States Is Draftkings Sportsbook Legal
  3. Is Draftkings Sportsbook Legal In Pennsylvania
  4. States Draftkings Sportsbook Legal

The launch of the DraftKings sports betting app could give Iowa sports betting handle the boost it needs to return to a growth path.

The short answer is yes, DraftKings is legal, licensed, and safe. DraftKings Sportsbook passes our 3-point check system at Lineups.com to assure you that you are betting with a legitimate and safe company. Is Draftkings Online Sportsbook Legal to Bet on in Virginia? Jul 23, 2020 While DraftKings at Casino Queen and the third parties used to provide the DraftKings at Casino Queen Services use reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information, neither DraftKings at Casino Queen nor its third-party providers warrant or make any representations of any kind with respect to the information provided through. Online sports betting and daily fantasy sports are distinct products and regulated as such. Betting on the DraftKings Sportsbook is currently only available in certain states. To find out which states, check out our guide to where sports betting is legal. Where DraftKings Sportsbook is Legal. Sports betting is legal in the United States due to the Supreme Court overturning a previous law that banned it on the basis of protecting athletes. Now that it is legal, it is up to the states to decide on whether they would like to allow it. DraftKings Sportsbook launched in New Jersey on August 6, 2018, becoming the first sportsbook to go live in NJ and the first legal online sportsbook in the U.S. It’s available on apps for both Android and iOS devices and also as a web-based platform.

The DraftKings Sportsbook app launch Wednesday through the Wild Rose casinos marks the sixth online sportsbook in the state. But despite adding new operators, IA sports betting handle decreased over the past two months.

Iowa sports betting handle last grew month over month in November. The decline hasn’t been huge, but it’s still the wrong direction for a state that should be ramping up operations.

IA sports betting handle dropping

Total handle sports betting in Iowa fell 2.1% to $58 million in January compared to December. That followed a basically flat December with handle down 0.1% from November.

The drop comes despite continued operator launches in the state:

  • Hard Rock Sioux City launched with the Gaming Innovation Group in December.
  • Q Casino’s self-operated app launched on IGT’s platform in November.
  • PointsBet’s app with Catfish Bend launched in November.

DraftKings Sportsbook might not be the only operator to launch this month. Betfred USA COO Bryan Bennett told LSR he expected its Iowa mobile app to launch in February as well.

DraftKings Sportsbook had time to build a base

Even though it might feel like daily fantasy sports are available everywhere, that’s not the case. There are still seven states where DraftKings doesn’t operate.

Iowa was one of those non-operational states until late October when DraftKings launched the first legal DFS operations there. FanDuel followed a few weeks later, both under the 2019 law authorizing DFS and sports betting.

That means the company has had nearly four months, including two full months of the NFL season and the playoffs, to acquire users in Iowa.

In-person sign-up makes Iowa growth tougher

The fact that Iowa sports betting doesn’t have fully open mobile operations means those DraftKings customers can’t open sportsbook accounts as easily as DFS accounts.

Iowa requires all mobile accounts to be registered through in-person registration at its casinos around the state. That requirement is in place throughout the rest of the year.

The good news for DraftKings is its sports betting brand has been represented through retail books at the three Wild Rose casinos since last fall. There’s been no shortage of interest in when mobile betting could start, according to Wild Rose COO Tom Timmons.

“Since we opened the sportsbooks, we have been deluged with requests for this app,” he said. “We are happy to offer it now, with the NCAA basketball tournament just around the corner.”

If you’re in New Jersey, you have access to DraftKings Sportsbook. Here’s a rundown of where you can find DraftKings for sports betting now and in the future.

DraftKings Sportsbook online

Here are the states where you can find DraftKings:

DraftKings in NJ

The well-dressed DraftKings NJ sports betting platform operates under the license of Resorts Atlantic City, but it’s available across web and mobile channels statewide. As long as you’re in the state, you can wager.

The product is perhaps more polished and market-ready than we expected from DraftKings. The company was, after all, solely a daily fantasy sports outfit until May 2018.

It was the first online sportsbook in the state and currently is the biggest in terms of revenue.

DraftKings in West Virginia

DraftKings Sportsbook announced a deal in December 2018 to operate WV sports betting via mobile. DraftKings partnered with Penn National Gaming, which runs Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.

DraftKings Sportsbook went live in WV in August, around the same time as rival FanDuel launched. While West Virginia is a relatively small state, it’s still important for DraftKings to expand everywhere it can.

DraftKings in Indiana

The third state for the DraftKings Sportsbook app was Indiana. It was one of the first two sportsbook apps to go live in the state on Oct. 3.

Indiana is not a huge state, but it’s notable for its proximity to several large cities where sports betting is not yet legal, including Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville.

Land-based DraftKings Sportsbooks

There are currently two land-based DraftKings Sportsbooks in the US:

  • DraftKings Sportsbook at Resorts, in New Jersey
  • DraftKings Sportsbook at Scarlet Pearl Resort in Mississippi.

States that may have DraftKings Sportsbooks in the future

Potential for growth is capped in the short term, however. While FanDuel has racked up market-access partnerships throughout the country, DraftKings is still pretty lean on that front.

Here’s the list of states in which you might see the next DraftKings Sportsbook pop up, and it’s not a very long one:

New York

Apart from NJ, New York is the only other state in which DraftKings has a confirmed point of entry. It announced a partnership with Del Lago in July 2018 that covers both retail and online/mobile operations. If that materializes, Del Lago could end up christening the first on-property, DraftKings-branded sportsbook in the country.

That’s all well and good, except NY sports betting is not yet in place. Voters approved the activity for four commercial casinos in 2013, but regulators have lagged on implementation. What’s more: that existing law excludes online/mobile wagering, so a new one likely will be required before the DraftKings Sportsbook app launches in NY.

Recent rumblings create some cause for optimism on the retail side, but the timeline for NY sports betting is still very much up in the air.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a little closer to becoming an online sports betting state than its neighbor. Full legalization came late in 2017, and launch arrived in November 2018.

DraftKings figures to be a candidate to partner with one of the PA casinos, but it would have limited ability to fully leverage its brand. State regulations permit each casino to deploy just a single online/mobile platform displaying its own logo. Each may only use one sports betting partner.

About half of the 13 prospective licensees are off the board, it appears:

  • SugarHouse/Rivers: Owned by Rush Street, which has a partnership with Kambi. That’s DraftKings’ supplier, too, but there’s no indication it is part of the deal.
  • Parx: Recently announced that it will use GAN to power its operations. It works with Kambi as well.
  • Presque Isle/Lady Luck: Both will soon be operated by Churchill Downs, which has established a partnership with SBTech.
  • Harrah’s: Parent company Caesars has an NJ partnership with Scientific Games that figures to carry across the border.
Draftkings Sportsbook Legal

It’s also impossible to pin down a timeline for the launch of online PA sports betting, but it’s coming sometime in 2019.

Nevada

This one could be interesting, since Nevada is one of the few states in which daily fantasy sports is explicitly prohibited as a skill game. DraftKings is a sports betting company now, though, an activity that is very much legal and thriving in the Silver State.

It has generally seemed unlikely that DraftKings would pursue Nevada sports betting, but nothing is a given anymore. The company recently announced plans to open an office in Las Vegas, which at least draws a raise of the eyebrow. DraftKings wouldn’t pay for a license to offer DFS as a “gambling” game, but might it do so in the world of widespread sports betting?

It’s also worth noting that CG Technologies is being pushed out of the Nevada market amid a string of gaming violations. Either it or the many sportsbooks it serves will need to find a replacement supplier, and a shiny new option has just become available courtesy of DraftKings.

File that last bit of evidence in the circumstantial folder.

Other candidates

Any state with legal sports betting should be considered a candidate for a DraftKings Sportsbook, really. In this post-PASPA world, company executives have made no secrets about their ambitions.

Rhode Island and Delaware have both legalized sports betting, too. Neither operates mobile betting, however, although it is legal in Delaware. The industries in both states are administered by state-chosen suppliers under the lottery’s direction.

It looks like the states broken down above represent the complete list of candidates for DraftKings Sportsbook in the short term. Despite its early lead, it’s even possible that it could still be stuck in only NJ and Mississippi when the calendar ticks over.

At least they have Barkley.