DraftKings soft launched on Wednesday its digital casino product in Pennsylvania, with full-blown launch now expected to take place on Friday, May 1, the online gambling and daily fantasy sports company said on Twitter.
DraftKings rolled out its sports betting app in the Keystone State in November 2019. Along with permission to join Pennsylvania’s regulated iGaming space, the company also received this week a Sports Wagering Operator License that was an upgrade from its conditional license from last year.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday gave the nod to DraftKings to begin a two-day soft launch process for its casino product in the state.
The company scheduled the soft launch to take place between 2-10 pm local time on Wednesday and between 1-11 pm local time today. If no hiccups occur during the two-day testing period, the company would permanently open its online casino on Friday.
DraftKings has obtained a skin to operate an online casino in Pennsylvania from Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course. It should be noted that Hollywood Casino itself actually launched the state’s first online casino last July.
Hollywood Casino’s owner, Penn National Gaming, last year signed a multi-year agreement with DraftKings for the provision of sports betting and digital gaming services across states where the two practices are legal or are poised to be legalized.
As mentioned earlier DraftKings launched its digital wagering product in Pennsylvania last fall through a partnership with Penn National’s Meadows Racetrack & Casino.
Pennsylvania’s New Online Casino
The launch of DraftKings’ online casino brings the number of such operations in the Keystone State to 10. The state’s first digital iGaming operations went live in mid-July 2019.
Legal casino-style gaming was off to a rather slow start with just a handful of market entries in the first months since the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board authorized the start of iGaming operations.
However, it can be seen now that the local market is getting a bit crowded with 10 licensed operations, including three that have gone live since the start of the year.
DraftKings’ biggest rival in the US sports betting and DFS fields, FanDuel, launched a casino app in Pennsylvania in January and enjoyed a pretty strong start during its first full month, surpassing market leaders PokerStars and BetRivers. However, the lack of a desktop version has somewhat impacted FanDuel’s revenue in March.
DraftKings already has some experience offering iGaming options. The company runs a digital casino in New Jersey. That website features nearly 200 slots games and a wide range of table games, including Live Casino titles.
Its offering in Pennsylvania would be not be as diverse, though. According to information from the state Gaming Control Board, DraftKings’ new online casino would only offer 28 slots and three table games.
However, this should not come as a big surprise. All new market entries usually start off with limited iGaming content as it should be noted that the Keystone State’s market is still a young one and it is yet to be seen what Pennsylvania players enjoy and what their gaming patterns are.
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