- Daily Racing Form branded DRF Sportsbook will open their first retail sportsbook on March 3 at the Lakeside Hotel & Casino in Osceola, Iowa.
- DRF Sportsbook’s mobile app went live in Iowa in late January.
- DRF Sports and the Daily Racing Form are owned by Las Vegas based Affinity Interactive which also owns land based gaming properties in Nevada, Missouri and Iowa.
When we reported on the Iowa launch of the Daily Racing Form branded DRF Sportsbook’s mobile app in late January, we suggested that it was just a ‘matter of time’ before we started seeing the brand on retail sportsbooks in the state. This prediction didn’t exactly require a crystal ball–the venerable horse racing publication, their betting subsidiaries and their Iowa licensee partner–Lakeside Hotel & Casino–are all owned by Affinity Interactive.
What we *didn’t* expect was for it to happen so fast. Earlier today, we received a press release from Affinity Interactive announcing that the first DRF Sportsbook retail location would open for business on Thursday, March 3 at the aforementioned Lakeside Hotel & Casino in Osceola, Iowa. This property is located on I-35 just under an hour south of Des Moines and around a half hour north of the Missouri State line.
RIP, WILLIAM HILL?
Equally as interesting–at the time of our previous article, the retail sportsbook at the Lakeside Hotel & Casino was operated by William Hill. The William Hill retail sportsbook at Lakeside opened on August 15, 2019 and obviously much has happened for both William Hill and Affinity Gaming (Affinity Interactive’s gaming subsidiary) since then. For Affinity Gaming/Interactive, it was the merger with Sports Information Group–owner of the Daily Racing Form brand–on June 4, 2021. For William Hill, it was the £2.9 billion acquisition of UK parent company William Hill PLC by Caesars Entertainment. As expected, Caesars quickly sold the non-US William Hill assets they acquired (to Gibraltar based 888 Holdings in September 2021) but they initially indicated that the iconic brand would live on for their third party managed sportsbooks.
That plan changed quickly as Caesars has moved to get out of the third party sportsbook management business as quickly as possible. In the process, they’ve been establishing the Caesars Sportsbook brand for their mobile and retail sportsbooks. They’ve also rebranded some of their third party sportsbooks under the Caesars Sportsbook marquee such as the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino in New Mexico. This property’s sportsbook was initially a William Hill branded location since they started offering sports betting in mid 2019. It’s unclear why Caesars has rebranded some third party locations, kept some (particularly in Nevada) as William Hill, and got out of their management relationship with others. There’s no doubt a remaining contractual responsibility for Caesars to operate their third party books. At the same time, they appear to be amiable to a termination of that relationship by ‘mutual agreement’. In addition, they may want to keep a property such as the aforementioned Inn of the Mountain Gods in the fold since they can add New Mexico to their roster of Caesars Sportsbook states.
The William Hill US website is now pretty hard to find–if you go to William Hill.com you’ll find a Caesars Sportsbook branded website. You have to dig around a little bit to find the actual William Hill US web presence which is clearly in a state of disarray. The ‘press release’ section hasn’t been updated since July 2021 and it hasn’t posted a ‘Media Hits’ item since–ironically enough” August 2021 when they linked to a Las Vegas Review-Journal report about Caesars Entertainment’s sportsbook re-branding initiative. The plan’s focal point was the consolidation of the William Hill and Caesars Sportsbook mobile apps in states where both were offered (Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia). Even then, the ‘party line’ was that William Hill books at properties not owned by Caesars Entertainment would keep their brand identity:
The change does not affect William Hill sportsbooks at locations not owned by Caesars, the company said. Caesars says that it plans to bring the new Caesars Sportsbook app launched in other states app to Nevada in the future.
The William Hill website still has the ‘locations’ search function but only three jurisdictions are offered: Florida, Nevada and The Bahamas. Some properties have been properly updated–the Tuscany Suites & Casinos in Las Vegas was previously a William Hill location but now has a Circa Sports managed sportsbook. That has been correctly updated. Other locations–including several in Mississippi–are shown as William Hill locations but now have self branded sportsbooks. Some such as the Treasure Bay Casino and Hotel in Biloxi have the ‘powered by William Hill’ sobriquet. There’s still plenty of William Hill branded books in Nevada but elsewhere you’re hard pressed to find one.
ENTER DRF SPORTSBOOK
There aren’t a lot of details in the DRF Sportsbook press release about the location itself–usually a new retail sportsbook opening lists the number of TV screens, betting windows, kiosks, square footage, etc. I’m assuming that the DRF Sportsbook will open in the former William Hill location–at least for the time being. When the William Hill location opened this blurb about the space was included in the press release:
The new sports book features 14 65-inch viewing monitors with 4K LCD displays and two 86-inch viewing monitors with 4K Ultra HD displays.
The entire Lakeside property is in the midst of a ‘multi-year, multi-million renovation project’ and that could very well include a new sportsbook. So far, they’ve only given details of the first phase of a projects which include a new restaurant, bar and Starbucks location. This is a good thing as I’ve made it a point to avoid any gaming property that doesn’t have a suitable source of espresso based drinks. The report does note that ‘Lakeside plans to initiate casino and hotel renovation projects over the next 2 to 4 years’. I looked for some renderings of the project but couldn’t find anything other than the first phase. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved the first phase of their remodeling at their June 2021 meeting. Why a gaming commission has to approve the addition of a Starbucks to a gaming property is beyond me. But I digress….at this point there doesn’t appear to be any detailed plans for future phases.
In addition to the scant details there isn’t much in the way of quotes. The only one is from James Zenni, Chairman of Affinity Interactive:
“The opening of the DRF Sportsbook is a significant event for Affinity Interactive’s expanding platform. This opening advances our overall strategy towards becoming the prominent omni-channel gaming provider in the U.S.”
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the retail sportsbooks at Affinity’s Nevada properties (the Primm Valley Casino Resorts, the Silver Sevens Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas (old timers will remember it as ‘Terrible’s Hotel and Casino’ and *real* old timers as the ‘Continental Hotel and Casino’) along with the Rail City Casino in Sparks. Northern Nevada OGs will remember that prior to 1997, the current Rail City property operated under the awful name ‘Plantation Casino’. There’s DRF branding on all of the Nevada properties’ websites but for the time being the retail sportsbooks operate under the William Hill brand.
DRF Sportsbook will have a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12 p.m. CT on March 3, 2022. That’s 1 PM Eastern and 10 AM Pacific. Hopefully, they’ll share some photos of the event.
