- FanDuel has opened their second retail sportsbook in the state of Illinois.
- The new location is at the FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing in Collinsville–previously known as the Fairmount Park Racetrack.
- FanDuel’s other Illinois retail outlet is in the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria.
FanDuel has opened their second retail sportsbook in the state of Illinois. The subsidiary of UK sports betting giant Flutter Entertainment (LSE: FLTR) has opened a location at the FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing in Collinsville, Illinois. This is the rebranded name of the former Fairmount Park Racetrack–it partnered with FanDuel in late 2020 with the latter promising not only a revenue cut from sports betting but a multi-million investment in an effort to spruce up the downtrodden facility.
Collinsville, Illinois is 20 minutes Northeast of St. Louis and apropos of that the ceremonial first bet at the new FanDuel location was placed by St. Louis Cardinals legend Ozzie Smith at 1 PM Central Time on Monday. Ozzie placed a $20 bet on the Cards to win the World Series at +2200. A press release announcing the opening of the new location described the amenities of the new sportsbook:
Just in time for the madness of college basketball to begin, the FanDuel Sportsbook is conveniently located in the Clubhouse and features a 98-inch LED video wall with twenty-four 65-inch LED video displays throughout the sportsbook. The state of the art sportsbook features five live betting windows, a large sports ticker and twenty IGT PlaySports self-service betting kiosks. FanDuel will provide its proprietary risk and trading technology that leverages the IGT PlaySports platform to offer bets on all major U.S. sports, including professional football, basketball, baseball, tennis, MMA, soccer, golf, motorsports racing and more
Keith Wall, Vice President of Retail, FanDuel Group, says that this project is of particular importance to his company due to their name being on the marquee of the track itself:
“This has been a special project for us because our name isn’t just on the sportsbook, it’s on the track itsel. FanDuel has made a commitment to revitalize this location by making capital improvements and hiring from within the local community. The opening of the sportsbook is the first major step in this project.”
FanDuel’s presence can only help Collinsville–a city which previously claimed the ‘world’s largest catsup bottle’ as their biggest attraction and most compelling source of civic pride. Located conveniently between the impoverished urban blight of US murder capital East St. Louis and the mind numbing ennui and anti-intellectualism of ‘flyover country’ the community is a microcosm of the worst of the America. A blurb on the demographics of the city does cheerfully assure us that “the ratio of registered sex offenders to all residents in this city is near the state average”. It’s really unfortunate that FanDuel has to set up shop in such a backwash just to offer mobile and online betting in the state.
FanDuel’s other Illinois retail location is at the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria. FanDuel now has 17 US retail locations and offers mobile/online sports betting in 10 states.
