Bally’s Corporation announced a deal Tuesday to bring its planned mobile sports betting platform to Iowa through a deal with Elite Casino Resorts.
A time frame was announced for providing Elite’s Grand Falls Casino and Golf Resort with mobile sports betting. The property is located in Larchwood, Iowa.
Financial terms were not announced.
The partnership is the first to be announced since Bally’s said last week it was acquiring technology provider Bet.Works for $125 million and the company will become part of the casino operator’s new interactive gaming division.
Bet.Works provides omnichannel products, platforms, software, and content solutions to operators in multiple states, including Iowa.
Rhode Island-based Bally’s, which in the process of acquiring four casinos in three states, will eventually have 14 properties in 10 states. Iowa would mark the company’s 11th state, but the first where the company does not maintain a land-based casino.
In a statement, Bally’s said the company “generally prefers to enter a jurisdiction through an owned casino property.” However, with the fluid nature of sports betting’s rapid growth, entering a state through a market access agreement was a good solution and one that might be repeated.
“Entering the Iowa gaming market with our new, integrated sports betting and igaming company is very exciting and we look forward to the launch in 2021,” said Bally’s CEO George Papanier.
Bally’s currently operates sportsbooks in Rhode Island, Colorado, Delaware, Mississippi, and will soon be in Atlantic City.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
