Daily fantasy sports and sports betting operator DraftKings this week celebrated the opening of its office in Las Vegas, Nevada.
However, the company locating some of its business in the Silver State does not mean that local gamblers will be able to place bets with the DraftKings app or at a physical DraftKings Sportsbook anytime soon, since the operator does not have a license from Nevada regulators to operate in the state’s regulated gambling space.
The same applies to DraftKings’ daily fantasy sports offering.
DraftKings’ new Las Vegas office is located at Town Square on Las Vegas Boulevard. Around 70 people are currently part of the company’s Las Vegas operations and 300 more are expected to join the team in the coming months.
The office includes a back-of-the-house call center that is dedicated to customer experience, sportsbook traders, fraud, casino, human resources, and IT. When fully operational, the Las Vegas office will be DraftKings’ second largest one in the United States, behind only the company’s Boston headquarters.
Employees from Las Vegas and the rest of Nevada will be tasked with handling customer inquiries and any issues they might have around the clock.
Following the May 2018 strikedown of a federal ban on athletic gambling, DraftKings has expanded in multiple states that have moved to legalize the practice and has cemented itself as one of the leaders in this nascent but highly lucrative market.
When Will DraftKings Go Live in Nevada?
DraftKings seems to be in no rush to launch its sports betting offering in Nevada. Under the state’s gambling laws, bettors are required to register in person at a licensed retail betting facility in order to be able to gamble via their mobile devices.
Commenting on options they have in store for their potential Silver State expansion, DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish said this week that unlike in other states, in Nevada gamblers need to go to a brick-and-mortar casino and sign up to use a betting app. However, Mr. Kalish went on, they did not have a retail sportsbook in the state and as a digital company they did not have a casino in Vegas where people could go to sign up.
As a result from that on-premise registration requirement, DraftKings has put its launch in Nevada “a little bit … lower on the list.” Mr. Kalish said that they have never really had the urgency to get a license from state regulators because they did not “have a way for consumers to get access to the product.”
However, it should be noted that DraftKings’ partnership with Caesars Entertainment Corp. could help it eventually tap into Nevada’s sports betting space.
The DFS and sports betting operator announced late last year a $3.3 billion tie-up with European sports betting and online real-money gaming technology provider SBTech. The deal is expected to be finalized in the first half of the year and to provide DraftKings with an in-house betting platform as it looks to expand and cement its US wagering footprint.
Source: Daily fantasy sports provider DraftKings opens Las Vegas office
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