When the New Jersey Devils choose the ice hockey, fans will soon have the choice of seeing their game as well as other live games from a lounge area that appears and feels just like a sportsbook.
As part of being a team sponsor, sportsbook operator William Hill will have 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 venue 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 is being converted and rebranded quickly, but there is presently no opening date.
Odds will be exhibited not only inside the sport couch but also on the team’s 4-story scoreboard. The lounge will be available for each and every occasion in the venue, including festivals. That’s a good deal of exposure, as Billboard ranked the venue 10th on earth on its own Arena Power List earlier this month.
“Our aim has always been to create Prudential Center the house of sports and entertainment in New Jersey, but ultimately our mission is to create the most lively fan experience in the industry now, and the William Hill Sports Lounge will play a role in amplifying enthusiast experience here,” said Hugh Weber, president of the Devils’ ownership team, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
William Hill, which works more sportsbooks than any other business in the nation as a result of its 108 places in Nevada, has been competitive in New Jersey since May, if the Supreme Court allowed states to create their own decisions concerning sports betting after ruling that parts of the skilled and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 were unconstitutional.
The business became the first operator of a sportsbook in the state when it started at Monmouth Park racetrack on June 14. But competition is fierce within the state, which is projected to surpass Nevada in sport gambling handle and revenue.
Daily dream sites DraftKings and FanDuel, armed with a nutritious database, have been among the first to launch programs on which fans could bet so long as it had been performed within state lines. FanDuel followed with its very first sportsbook at the Meadowlands, on the grounds in which the New York Jets and Giants play, which opened a month after William Hill’s racetrack location debuted.
“We’re spending a considerable amount of marketing dollars in New Jersey,” Asher said. “It is going to be a very competitive and expensive landscape for the next couple of years. A think a lot of companies in the space feel the need to push hard in the state as a testing ground to prove they can be everywhere. In a sense, it is like the Iowa caucuses in politics.”
Even though New Jersey is one of five states that has legalized sports betting — along with Nevada, Delaware, Mississippi and West Virginia — it is the weakest state. In the first four months after sports gambling was legalized, New Jersey earned $336.6 million in wagers, according to the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.
“I said that, when fully mature, the New Jersey sports betting market would double that of Nevada,” Asher said. “It’s early days, but I could see how much that is being conservative.”
William Hill is currently one of eight firms offering mobile gambling on devices within the state.
Read more here: http://blackpresident.us/?p=60322
Loading ...