Daily fantasy sports operator DraftKings is entering into a deal with Atlantic City’s Resort Casino to being developing a DraftKings-branded sportsbook at the property. The deal is the culmination of New Jersey’s desire to reinvigorate Atlantic City casinos and carves out new territory for the long-struggling, but newly resurgent, DFS operator.
As part of the deal, DraftKings will also be developing mobile and web-based sports betting platforms for the casino. For its part, Resort Casino is hoping to leverage the DraftKings brand to help draw in customers to Atlantic City, or at least their mobile devices, to wager on sports.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins commented on that aspect of the deal in a statement quoted by LegalSportsReport.com saying:
We have a well-known brand that’s very closely identified with winning money on sports
.
Besides brand recognition, DraftKings bring to the table a massive database of more than 10 million DFS players who, presumably, are also the type of person who is likely to engage in actual sports betting, too.
While the deal is definitely moving forward, there are a few unanswered questions such as, how far along is that mobile sports betting app and who is actually developing it? and whatever happened to DraftKings’ claim that it wasn’t a sports betting company? – apparently that’s no long a thing.
Both Robbins and Morris Bailey, the owner of Resorts, commented on the potential of New Jersey’s sports betting market with Robbins saying, “The market is huge. It’s how much of that market we’ll be able to get.”
Regulated single game wagering may be introduced in Atlantic City as early as this week.