When the New Jersey Devils choose the ice hockey, fans will have the choice of watching their game in addition to other live games out of a lounge area which appears and feels just like a sportsbook.
As part of being a team sponsor, sportsbook operator William Hill will get its name on a Prudential Center lounge where matches can be watched more than 20 screens with chances boards showing the menu of betting options across all sports.
Since the NHL isn’t comfortable with the site being a real sportsbook where bets can be placed at windows and kiosks, William Hill US CEO Joe Asher told ESPN that company ambassadors will help bettors in downloading William Hill’s betting app. The space has been converted and rebranded quickly, but there’s presently no opening date.
Odds will be exhibited not only within the sport couch but also on the team’s 4-story scoreboard. The lounge will be available for every event in the venue, including festivals. That is a lot of vulnerability, as Billboard ranked the venue 10th on earth on its Arena Power List earlier this month.
“Our goal has always been to create Prudential Center the home of sports and entertainment in New Jersey, but finally our duty is to create the most dynamic fan experience in the market now, and the William Hill Sports Lounge will play a part in amplifying fan experience here,” said Hugh Weber, president of the Devils’ ownership group, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
William Hill, which operates more sportsbooks than any other company in the nation thanks to its 108 places in Nevada, has been competitive in New Jersey since May, when the Supreme Court allowed states to create their own conclusions regarding sports gambling after ruling that parts of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 were unconstitutional.
The company became the first operator of a sportsbook at the state when it opened at Monmouth Park racetrack on June 14. But competition is fierce within the country, which can be projected to surpass Nevada in sports gambling handle and revenue.
Daily fantasy sites DraftKings and FanDuel, armed with a nutritious database, were among the first to launch programs on which fans can bet so long as it had been done within state lines. FanDuel followed with its very first sportsbook at the Meadowlands, on the grounds where the New York Jets and Giants play, that started a month later William Hill’s racetrack location surfaced.
“We are spending a significant quantity of marketing dollars in New Jersey,” Asher said. “It is going to be quite a competitive and costly landscape for another couple of years. A think a good deal of organizations in the space feel the need to push hard in the state as a testing ground to prove they could be everywhere. In a sense, it is like the Iowa caucuses in politics.”
While New Jersey is now one of five states that has legalized sports betting — along with Nevada, Delaware, Mississippi and West Virginia — it’s the weakest state. In the first four weeks following sports gambling was legalized, New Jersey earned $336.6 million in wagers, as stated by the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.
“I stated that, when fully mature, the New Jersey sports gambling market would double that of Nevada,” Asher said. “It is early days, but I could see how even that is being conservative.”
William Hill is currently one of eight firms that offer mobile gambling on devices inside the state.
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