DraftKings Sportsbook, Caesars Entertainment Ink Deal For Online Sports Betting, Casino

This is a developing story.

The long wait  to find out who DraftKings would partner with for national market access ended Monday.

Caesars Entertainment announced a new multi-year, multi-state agreement with DraftKings. The union could grant DraftKings Sportsbook access into any state where Caesars has a land-based casino presence. It also delivers an equity stake in DraftKings to Caesars, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Here's DraftKings CEO Jason Robins on the deal:

“Partnering with such a world class gaming organization will expedite our national roll-out process and give us the opportunity to work alongside one the largest and most established industry leaders in the world. We look forward to collaborating with Caesars Entertainment on creating the most innovative and engaging sports and entertainment products and events for our customers.”

Read the press release here.

DraftKings Sportsbook + Caesars

After many months of courting suitors, DraftKings appears to have found its primary partner for US legal sports betting.

Based in Las Vegas, Caesars is one of the largest, most geographically diverse casino companies in the world. Its domestic portfolio features dozens of properties 14 states, including some with active sports betting operations:

• New Jersey
• Mississippi
• Nevada
• Pennsylvania

DraftKings Sportsbook operates in New Jersey and outpaced all competitors in the first partial year of NJ sports betting. It runs a retail sportsbook at Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort in Mississippi as well.

DraftKings also continues to ramp up operations in Nevada, including the hiring of former Wynn sportsbook director Johnny Avello. The plan for Nevada remained murky without a clear path to market, but that road now looks clear.

PA sports betting on deck for DraftKings?

It's the last one on that list that jumps off the page.

The partnership may pave DraftKings Sportsbook's path into the Pennsylvania sports betting market, which is poised to go online in early 2019. The same can be said for DraftKings Casino, offering traditional online gambling games within the same platform.

Whether or not Pennsylvania is included in the partnership, however, is not immediately clear. Caesars is only permitted a single PA sports betting license, and it would presumably prefer to deploy its own brand into the marketplace.

From Caesars' standpoint, the alliance includes the reported equity stake in DraftKings and promotion as its official casino resort partner in the relevant states. It's also unclear at this point how much equity Caesars acquired in DraftKings, which had been in a funding round.

The press release makes it clear that Caesars will continue to offer its own suite of online gambling products going forward.

The post DraftKings Sportsbook, Caesars Entertainment Ink Deal For Online Sports Betting, Casino appeared first on Legal Sports Report.

Original source: https://www.legalsportsreport.com/29617/draftkings-sportsbook-caesars-partnership/

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