- Sportsbooks set to launch in Arizona could begin the sign up and deposit process for new players beginning today.
- Caesars Sportsbook and WynnBET have announced that their mobile apps are live in Arizona for signups and deposits.
- Sports betting is scheduled to begin on September 9 pending several legal challenges to the Arizona licensing process that could result in a temporary injunction.
We’ll ignore the maggot infested backroom where the ‘sausage is being made’ in Arizona and focus on the ‘front of the house’ for awhile. The good news is that bettors in Arizona will have a nice variety of sportsbook options coming online within the near future. The official start date is September 9 but that is contingent on how the legal process plays out. There are two requests for a temporary injunction on the docket now and I’ll be shocked if there aren’t several more filed early this week.
This is what is so infuriating about Arizona–they *could* have a top three sports betting ecosystem. That benefits not only sports bettors and the sportsbook industry but the entire state of Arizona. State governors always try to pat themselves on the back for what they’ve done for the state economically. That’s not really valid, of course, and the states that experience economic success usually do so despite their political infrastructure and not because of it. With very few exceptions, the governor is either in the right place at the right time or in the wrong place at the wrong time. Governors claiming that they ‘created jobs’ or ‘attracted investment’ is like me trying to take credit for ‘manifesting a snowstorm’ because I happened to be in Park City, Utah in the middle of winter.
One of the most frequently heard rationales for state regulated sports betting involves the economic upside. Most government types are short sighted and self serving in this regard focusing only on the increase in revenue to the state. That’s one of the outcomes but when sports betting is done property it can create so many more positive economic externalities. States are always trying to ‘attract jobs’ and investment. Remember a while back when states and cities were playing the ‘dueling tax breaks’ game in an effort to attract the second Amazon headquarters to town? This happens on a smaller level every day. Sometimes it pays off–here in South Carolina, the state lured a BMW plant to the upstate back in 1992. It has completely transformed the Greenville/Spartanburg area as a number of BMW suppliers (eg: Pirelli, Bosch) followed them to town and set up their own assembly operations. These attracted a wide variety of ‘support services’ necessary to run a large international business. It brought about a massive airport upgrade to the point that the Greenville Spartanburg airport (GSP) is one of the best kept secrets in the southeast. The city now has a reputation as a great place to do business, attracting even more investment. That has impacted the quality of life in the area–better restaurants, a revitalized downtown, etc.
My constant frustration with US sports betting is that states have this massive worldwide industry dropped into their laps that can potentially do the same thing–if not more–than industry they try to bring in with tax dollars. With a few exceptions, they’ve completely screwed it up. Many of the states that have on balance done it with some degree of competence could find even greater success–at every level–with a better regulatory framework. Job creation might be the most significant and poorly executed component of the US betting industry. Make your state an epicenter of the US sports betting business–see Colorado and New Jersey–and you’ll get companies moving in. Even better–the jobs that 21 century sports betting creates are primarily the type of high income, highly skilled, tech heavy gigs that states claim to want.
This doesn’t negate the fact that I love to see any jurisdiction that is offering their citizens a competitive sports betting market where everyone benefits–players, non-players, job hunters, state balance sheets, ancillary businesses, etc. That’s what is so galling about Arizona–they got the ‘broad strokes’ right but completely screwed up the details. That doesn’t mean that I’m not happy for the sportsbooks that are ‘in’ and preparing to begin operations. I completely understand why they want to put the licensing process behind them and move forward. Ideally, they’ll be able to do this concurrently with an effort to rectify the hot mess that is the Arizona license allocation process. On a macro level, that would be best case scenario for the state, the citizens of Arizona and the sports betting industry.
I’m going to try to work both sides of the street here–covering the impending launch of sports betting in Arizona and what sportsbooks are doing in advance on that while staying focused on the fiasco going on behind the scenes. One thing we’ll try to keep track of is when the sportsbook operators start to accept signups and deposits. Everyone is at a different point in this process but I expect there to be an avalanche of launches early next week. If you’re in Arizona this is worth keeping an eye on–during the launch stage sportsbooks will be offering excellent bonuses and signup perks as they compete for business. The timing of the launch–right at the start of the NFL football season–will only intensify this.
WYNNBET, CAESARS SPORTSBOOK GO LIVE FOR PLAYER SIGNUPS AND DEPOSITS
Two sportsbooks have announced that they’re ready to go signing up Arizona players in advance of the September 9 (more or less) launch. The first is WynnBET, entering Arizona in partnership with the San Carlos Apache Tribal Gaming Enterprise (SCATGE). SCATGE operates the Apache Gold Casino Resort (located 100 miles East of Phoenix) and the Apache Sky Casino (110 miles Southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles North of Tuscon). WynnBET has very quietly hit a groove over the past six months–Arizona will be their seventh state not counting Nevada (the WynnBET operation outside of Nevada is done in partnership with BetBull).
WynnBET dropped a press release on Friday announcing that they’ve been licensed but it was ‘short and sweet’:
WynnBET, the premier sports betting app from the global leader in luxury hospitality, Wynn Resorts, announced on Friday that it has secured an online sports betting license in Arizona in partnership with the San Carlos Apache Tribal Gaming Enterprise. Players in Arizona can begin pre-registering and depositing on Saturday with the state scheduled to go live on Thursday, Sept. 9.
WynnBET Arizona patrons will have access to Wynn Rewards when the state goes live, which will provide them a variety of benefits. Wynn Rewards includes three member tiers: Red, Platinum and Black. FREECREDIT and COMPDOLLARS, two key tenets of Wynn Rewards, will soon be available for WynnBET players in Arizona to earn.
WynnBET is offering an ‘Arizona Prelaunch Special’ available to any new player in the state that signs up and makes a $20 minimum deposit by 12:00 AM PDT on September 9. You’ll get a $1,000 risk free bet plus a $200 free bet. The way it works–your first ‘eligible sports bet’ is risk free up to $1000. The ‘eligible bet’ has to be made by 5:15 PM PDT on September 13. Once your $1000 risk free bet is graded you’ll get your $200 free bet. The ‘eligible bet’ has some conditions that are worth checking out–it applies only to pregame betting and not live betting and it has to be a wager with odds between -150 and +10,000 so no straight pointspread or totals bets. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life but were it me I’d wait on this. I’ve got a strong suspicion that once other sportsbooks start making ‘Arizona Prelaunch’ offers you’ll see a lot of ‘pot sweetening’ to stay competitive.
Speaking of which, Caesars Sportsbook sent out a press release today announcing that their mobile app is live for signup in Arizona. They’ve got a better bonus going already and we’ll talk about that in a moment. Caesars is entering Arizona in partnership with the MLB Arizona Diamondbacks–they’re going to be operating a retail sportsbook at Chase Field as well as offering statewide mobile access. The retail betting at the ballpark will begin on September 9th at a temporary sportsbook at box office ticket windows 21-25. This will be the first (and as of now only) sportsbook at a MLB baseball stadium. They will also install five betting kiosks at the stadium. This is all a preface to the opening of a state of the art retail sports betting facility at Chase Field in early 2022. Not many details about that except this blurb in the press release that made the announcement:
Following recent legislation in Arizona that authorized legal sports betting, the agreement between the D-backs and Caesars Entertainment will result in a brand-new, state-of-the-art sportsbook, sports bar and broadcast studio at the location formerly known as Game 7 Grill on the Plaza at Chase Field.
They did include a nice custom made graphic, something that people in my line of work really appreciate:
The Caesars press release even included quotes–this is Eric Hession, Co-President of Caesars Digital, talking about his company’s deep roots in the Phoenix area:
“Caesars is no stranger to Arizona, having operated here for more than 25 years. We couldn’t be happier to partner with the Arizona Diamondbacks as the state makes this shift into legal sports betting. Arizona is the first state where our brand-new Caesars Sportsbook app will be live right as sports betting becomes legalized. We believe our app is the best in the industry, and we are thrilled to launch with a series of exciting offers that Arizonans can trust.”
Derrick Hall, D-backs President & CEO, is no doubt happy to have a veritable license to print money in his team’s home ballpark:
“Today marks a significant advancement in the process of legalized sports betting in Arizona and we couldn’t be prouder to enter this new venture with Caesars. Caesars, like the D-backs, has been a Valley resident for over 25 years, and we look forward to a successful partnership and celebrating the first sportsbook to open at a Major League stadium.”
Here’s what Caesars is offering for bettors in Arizona–the press release says that they’re ‘worth of an emperor’ and I’m not going to argue with them:
- Now through Sept. 30 every Arizona bettor gets a $5,000 risk-free bet
- First bets up to $5,000 are risk-free for all app users until Sept. 30
- Plus, register early to get a $100 free bet
- Register before Sept. 9 to get a $100 free bet
- And, deposit early to get $1 free bets when the home teams score
- Deposit before Sept. 9 to get a $1 free bet in return for every point or run scored by Arizona teams in the following games:
- Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Seattle Mariners on Friday, Sept. 10 – Sunday, Sept. 12
- Arizona State University vs. University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Saturday, Sept. 11
- University of Arizona vs. San Diego State University on Saturday, Sept. 11
- Arizona Cardinals vs. Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Sept. 12
- Deposit before Sept. 9 to get a $1 free bet in return for every point or run scored by Arizona teams in the following games:
- Add on an NFL jersey with a $100 NFL bet
- Opt-in and place a $100 bet on any NFL game between Sept. 9 – Sept. 30 to receive an NFL jersey of choice
Caesars dropped another interesting partnership with an Arizona sports organization earlier in the week as they announced a partnership deal with the Fiesta Bowl. This is the first sports betting and fantasy gaming partnership with a college football bowl game and I think you’re going to see many more to come.
Caesars’ mobile betting app is now operational in Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, West Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, Tennessee and Washington DC along with their ‘pre-launch’ status in Arizona. They also offer retail betting in Mississippi–the boneheaded state regulars haven’t approved mobile betting–at a number of their properties including Harrah’s Gulf Coast and the Horseshoe Tunica. A number of other properties in the state offer sports betting with Caesars owned William Hill. FYI–the Harrah’s Gulf Coast property along with a number of other casinos in the Biloxi area have closed due to the approach of Hurricane Ida so don’t go rushing down there or anything. At last check, nine properties had already made the decision to close–in Mississippi, the gaming commission defers authority to order closure to local government authorities.
