{"id":105711,"date":"2019-05-23T21:07:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T04:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=105711"},"modified":"2019-05-23T21:07:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T04:07:33","slug":"west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Virginia could be back in the mobile sports betting business as soon as next week as the state\u2019s Lottery Commission gave approval for the DraftKings app to launch statewide.<\/p>\n

\"\"
West Virginia Lottery Director John Myers, right, said he expects DraftKings to launch its mobile sports betting application by next week. The Lottery Commission gave its approval for the app at its monthly meeting Wednesday. (Image: Steven Allen Adams\/Parkersburg News and Sentinel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Randy Burnside, the lottery\u2019s public relations manager, confirmed to Casino.org<\/em> that the commission made the decision at its monthly meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In an interview Thursday with West Virginia Metro News Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval<\/em>, Lottery Director John Myers said his office completed testing at Hollywood Casino in Charles Town and is finishing a letter of approval for the casino and DraftKings to proceed.<\/p>\n

Myers said the casino will likely perform additional training this weekend. That would likely make DraftKings\u2019 go-live date in the middle of next week.<\/p>\n

A Hollywood Casino representative referred all questions to DraftKings. A DraftKings spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

When DraftKings becomes available it will end a nearly three-month hiatus for mobile sports betting in West Virginia. Delaware North\u2019s Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras casinos offered an app, called BetLucky, for 11 weeks before a technical dispute shuttered both the retail and online sportsbooks at the casinos in early March.<\/p>\n

Last month, Delaware North filed suit<\/a> against its partner, Miomni, over the closure.<\/p>\n

Financial Impact Uncertain<\/h2>\n

Myers could not give Kercheval an estimate for how much revenue sports betting would bring to the state, although he cautioned it would not bring in the amount of money video lottery terminals have. In fiscal year 2018, the terminals at state\u2019s four racetrack casinos brought in $504.3 million in revenue.<\/p>\n

Through May 11, sports betting has generated $1.1 million for the state, although that figure considers both Delaware North properties unexpectedly going offline.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still kind of working towards putting our arms around (estimating sport betting\u2019s financial impact) simply because we\u2019ve been in-and-out of it,\u201d <\/strong>Myers said. \u201cThe mobile app was very successful when it was running at the Delaware North properties. In fact, in some weeks, it outperformed the retail at those locations.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A review of financial data from those casinos shows that mobile taxable receipts from Wheeling Island exceeded its retail receipts in seven of the 11 weeks before the closure. Mardi Gras\u2019 online receipts surpassed retail five times in the same span.<\/p>\n

While DraftKings will be available throughout the entire state, it may be difficult for the app to exceed Hollywood\u2019s retail sportsbook. Located in the far eastern part of the state, Hollywood markets to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which is about an hour\u2019s drive to Charles Town.<\/p>\n

Of the $114.2 million in sports wagers made in the state, $79.7 million of that has been handled by Hollywood.<\/p>\n

DraftKings Growth<\/h2>\n

DraftKings signed a licensing agreement with Penn National Gaming, which owns Hollywood Casino, last December to provide a mobile sportsbook platform.<\/p>\n

\n

It started as a daily fantasy sports gaming company in 2012 and expanded into sports betting by launching its first sportsbook service last August in New Jersey. The company runs one of three apps affiliated with Resorts Digital Gaming, which has generated $22.7 million in revenue through the first four months of 2019. Resorts Digital Gaming’s online sports betting apps produced $30.4 million in revenue over the last five months of 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

DraftKings<\/a> also operates a retail sportsbook at the Scarlet Pearl Casino in Mississippi.<\/p>\n

In West Virginia, it will provide betting on professional and college sporting events. Wagering options will include betting on games, futures betting, and in-game proposition bets.<\/p>\n

Besides Hollywood, sports betting is currently available in West Virginia at two other locations. They are Mountaineer Casino in New Cumberland, where William Hill manages the sportsbook, and The Greenbrier, a resort in Sulphur Springs where FanDuel offers sports betting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Virginia could be back in the mobile sports betting business as soon as next week as the state\u2019s Lottery Commission gave approval for the DraftKings app to launch statewide. Randy Burnside, the lottery\u2019s public relations manager, confirmed to Casino.org that the commission made the decision at its monthly meeting on Wednesday. In an interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":105716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13592,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWest Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The West Virginia Lottery Commission on Wednesday gave final approval for DraftKings to start online sports betting within the state.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The West Virginia Lottery Commission on Wednesday gave final approval for DraftKings to start online sports betting within the state.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-24T04:07:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1074\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"604\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/\",\"name\":\"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-24T04:07:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-24T04:07:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\"},\"description\":\"The West Virginia Lottery Commission on Wednesday gave final approval for DraftKings to start online sports betting within the state.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg\",\"width\":1074,\"height\":604,\"caption\":\"(Image: Steven Allen Adams\/Parkersburg News and Sentinel)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Regulation\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/regulation\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\",\"name\":\"Steve Bittenbender\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Steve Bittenbender\"},\"description\":\"Steve Bittenbender covers Midwest and Gulport news for Casino.org. He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. Contact Steve at stevebittenbender@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/steve-bittenbender\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week","description":"The West Virginia Lottery Commission on Wednesday gave final approval for DraftKings to start online sports betting within the state.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week","og_description":"The West Virginia Lottery Commission on Wednesday gave final approval for DraftKings to start online sports betting within the state.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-05-24T04:07:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1074,"height":604,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Steve Bittenbender","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Bittenbender","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/","name":"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg","datePublished":"2019-05-24T04:07:33+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-24T04:07:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2"},"description":"The West Virginia Lottery Commission on Wednesday gave final approval for DraftKings to start online sports betting within the state.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/John-Myers.jpg","width":1074,"height":604,"caption":"(Image: Steven Allen Adams\/Parkersburg News and Sentinel)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/west-virginia-approves-draftkings-for-mobile-sports-betting-lottery-director-expects-launch-next-week\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Regulation","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/regulation\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"West Virginia Approves DraftKings for Mobile Sports Betting; Lottery Director Expects Launch Next Week"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2","name":"Steve Bittenbender","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png","caption":"Steve Bittenbender"},"description":"Steve Bittenbender covers Midwest and Gulport news for Casino.org. He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. Contact Steve at stevebittenbender@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/steve-bittenbender\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}