The president of Caesars Digital signaled long-standing patrons of the renowned Westgate SuperBook not to fear their takeover of the venue. He sent the message while appearing before the Nevada Gaming Control Board Wednesday.
It’s essentially a marriage of the SuperBook legacy with the new-age technology modern sports bettors expect, according to Caesars’s Eric Hession. The transition will keep the identity, scale, and atmosphere that have defined the SuperBook for decades, he said.
The Board gave a recommendation to the Nevada Gaming Commission to approve Caesars’s takeover of the sportsbook, which has an ingrained reputation for its NFL handicapping contest known as the SuperContest and its massive screens for immersive viewing. Unlike Caesars, Westgate wasn’t known for the same-game expanded parlay, live in-play wagering, or even kiosks.
A deal was announced in April for Caesars to take over the operations; the new book will be known as the Westgate SuperBook powered by Caesars Sportsbook. If approved by the Commission, Caesars would take over July 28, install 26 kiosks, offer Caesars lines, and enable customers to sign up for the Caesars app.
“This is a big deal,” Hession said. “The SuperBook is extremely well known. It has a great history. It was one of the original line setters in the state. We don’t take that lightly. When we started talking to them about running their book, one of the things we made sure was that we were going to respect the history and not change things needlessly.”
Any physical changes would be to improve sound or picture quality of screens. Caesars will also introduce self-service betting kiosks, both inside the SuperBook and throughout the resort, providing faster round-the-clock access to wagering.
Hession said the 26 kiosks being brought will be popular because the Westgate will now have 24-hour sports betting. The 15 counter locations will be upgraded.
“If you can effectively use a book of that size, you’ll have more people coming in,” Hession said. “Therefore, you’ll have more retail wagers as a percentage of the online. These kiosks will do exceptionally well. We have found 70% to 80% of wagers (in a retail sportsbook) are now done in kiosks.”
Hession said the SuperBook at one time had aspirations to be a multi-state operator and expanded staffing and invested in technology. The company has since divested all of the operations except for Las Vegas.
“As a result, their technology platform and some of the other efficiencies we can bring are falling behind,” Hession said. “They have very little in-play wagering. We will bring our whole package, and it will upgrade the customer experience.”
Hession said the Westgate SuperBook brand was powerful enough in sports betting that they wanted to retain it. “They have a great brand and we want to keep the legacy. We also want to highlight that it has the Caesars component attached to it.”
Hession said it’s a similar product to Caesars’s William Hill brand. From a technology standpoint, however, Westgate’s online customers will earn Caesars Rewards versus the William Hill rewards. “On property, they will still have their WOW Rewards, so customers when they play retail will get property-specific rewards.”
Caesars has made offers to the eligible front-of-the-house employees. They are hiring 16 ticket writers and six supervisors. Some didn’t want to be a Caesars employee and others found different jobs, even within the property. Hession said they interviewed the Westgate traders and hired two of them and one of the settlement specialists. They’re in discussions to keep the existing sportsbook manager. John Murray, vice president of race and sports, is remaining in that position.
It was reported by Front Office Sports and InGame in June that Jeff Sherman, who has over 25 years on the bookmaking side and is well-known as one of golf’s top oddsmakers, is leaving the SuperBook and has been hired as senior risk manager at Circa Sports.
“It’s not a net reduction on day one of that number,” Hession said. “A number of employees were ineligible to be hired, because of previous transgressions working for Caesars or they were let go and we weren’t going to hire them.”
Hession said the existing SuperBook app will stay around for a year to settle existing wagers, but ultimately those people will be transitioned to Caesars’s app. People can sign up for a Caesars’s app right away.
“Our goal is a full migration, transfering their balances and passwords into our app, so they will be about to seamlessly start using it,” Hession said. “That will take a lot of tech work and we’re exploring that. That would be the ideal situation and the least disruptive to their customers.”
When asked by the Board for the reason behind the change, Robert Wamsley, vice president of compliance at Westgate, said they made the move to go to a more technological platform for its customers.
Hession pointed out that they will offer a broader experience for live action, even when at a sportsbook. Customers are gravitating to more parlays across different sports along with the cash-out feature.
Caesars recently launched a new product called the flex-parlay. If someone wants to do a six-leg parlay, they can hit the flex button if they miss by one leg or two legs, Hession said.
