This Christmas/New Year’s/Hanukkah depending on the year/Kwanzaa holiday season is quite nice. My kids are on break from school, which unlike a lot of parents, makes me happy. My wife gets to work from home until next week, which unlike a lot of husbands and for the sake of parallel sentence structure, makes me happy. The problem, however, is that there is basically nothing going on in the poker world, making it very difficult for me to work and requiring a lot of filler like this. This season is pretty darn solid for sports bettors, though, as there is plenty of NBA basketball – especially on Christmas – it is college bowl season, and the NFL playoffs are about to start (plus, betting on the NFL’s Week 17 is more of a heart-pounding adventure than normal). And sports bettors in West Virginia now have more options as the Mountain State became just the third, after Nevada and New Jersey, to have legal mobile sports betting.
Delaware North, a Buffalo, New York-based hospitality company which operates the Mardi Gras Casino & Resort and Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack in West Virginia, launched the BetLucky.com sports betting site and the BetLucky app a couple days after Christmas. Developed by Miomni Gaming, the site and app can be accessed by gamblers throughout the state.
“We think West Virginians and visitors to the Mountain State are going to love how easy it is to register and use the app,” said Luisa Woods, Delaware North’s vice president of marketing of its gaming division, in a press release.
“The platform was designed to be flexible, easy to use and reliable, with innovative features designed specifically to engage and entertain U.S. sports fans,” Woods added. “Patrons at the casinos can use the app or the betting tellers in the sportsbooks.”
Delaware North hopes that as its online sports betting products prove successful, the company will be positioned to quickly introduce the same platform in other states if and when legalized sports betting proliferates throughout the country. The company has venues in Florida, Arizona, Arkansas, New York, Ohio, and Illinois.
In addition to online sports betting, Delaware North also opened brick-and-mortar sportsbooks at Mardi Gras and Wheeling Island. The sportsbooks were designed to “foster a casual sports bar atmosphere with social seating and proximity to food and beverage options, including bars.”
“Our patrons are going to enjoy these spaces in the casinos and everything else we have to offer in terms of hospitality and entertainment,” said Kim Florence, regional president and general manager of both casinos. “We are eager to welcome people from throughout the state and the regions surrounding West Virginia to try a new experience at our casinos.”
West Virginia was the fifth state to launch legalized sports betting, with Hollywood Casino at Charles Town being the first to accept wagers on August 30th, 2018. In addition to Delaware North’s venues, The Casino Club at The Greenbrier and Mountaineer Casino also have sportsbooks.