- PointsBet is targeting a November launch in Colorado.
- The Australian based company has inked sponsorship deals with several Denver pro sports teams and the University of Colorado.
- PointsBet has opened a second US office in Denver.
Australia’s PointsBet opened a US office in 2019 and has been hard at work establishing a presence in the marketplace. They’re already operational in New Jersey, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois and Colorado is next on their list. PointsBet is targeting a November launch in Colorado with a Michigan launch on the docket for Q3 2021.
PointsBet was an early entrant into the Colorado market and they’ve been extremely active on a number of fronts. One of their first moves was establishing a second US office in Denver’s LoDo district. In September, Eric Foote, chief commercial officer for PointsBet, told the Denver arts/entertainment weekly Westworld that the area offers a number of attractive qualities:
“The team made a very conscious decision last fall to plant our flag here and call this home.”
Foote has lived in Colorado since 2013 and now resides in Boulder. He continued to explain the appeal of the Centennial State and it goes well beyond the fact that they’ve set up what is the best regulatory framework for sports betting in the United States:
“The market itself and the opportunity to attract top-notch employees, specifically as you think of product and development,” Foote says. “We are one of very few that own our technology from front to back. We think that sets us apart.” He refers to the Denver area, including Boulder, as a “mini Silicon Valley”; PointsBet also has offices in New Jersey, Illinois, Australia and the Philippines.
PointsBet has also established promotional ties with several Denver pro sports teams. The multi-year partnership makes PointsBet the ‘official and exclusive’ gaming partner of the Pepsi Center along with the teams that play there–the NHL Colorado Avalanche, the NBA Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The sponsorship deal that has gained the most attention, however, is a deal they signed with the University of Colorado. PointsBet’s Foote suggests that they wanted to do a deal that was beneficial to the entire university community–even those not of legal betting age:
“We were thoughtful in doing the partnership,” says Foote, who notes that the company worked with CU’s athletic director, chancellor and even university president to strike this deal. “A key component is education and responsible gaming, and also having these conversations with student-athletes on the leadership and career development program,” he says.
Curiously, PointsBet had laid plenty of groundwork in Colorado but they’ve not done one very important thing–release their mobile app in the state. Nor have they opened a retail sportsbook. At some point, they’ll likely open some kind of retail presence at the Double Eagle Casino in Cripple Creek (holder of the master license under which PointsBet has market access in Colorado) but the entire retail betting component is a bit behind the curve due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
PointsBet has made it clear that they’re targeting November for the mobile app launch. They stressed this in their most recent earnings report (October 27). They even included the Colorado launch on this helpful PowerPoint slide:
Since PointsBet has hit their other objectives this year that bodes well for the Colorado launch. Once PointsBet launches that will make it 16 companies offering sports betting apps in the state along with the tribal run Sky Ute Casino sportsbook for a total of 17. The state also has 12 retail sportsbooks.
