- William Hill has opened a new retail sportsbook at Iowa’s Horseshoe Council Bluffs casino.
- In addition, sports betting kiosks are available at Harrah’s Council Bluffs.
- Both the Horseshoe Council Bluffs and Harrah’s Council Bluffs are Caesars Entertainment properties.
Although the financial and investment media can’t get over their obsession with DraftKings and Penn National, William Hill US quietly continues to expand their presence across the country. Nevada’s largest sportsbook operator got even bigger when Eldorado Resorts merged with Caesars Entertainment and they’ve wasted no time in leveraging that deal to expand elsewhere in the nation.
Most recently, William Hill launched a full service retail sportsbook at Iowa’s Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino. At the same time, they installed self service sports betting kiosks at nearby Harrah’s Council Bluffs. Inexplicably, the kiosks are only available 10 AM to Midnight. They also offer mobile service statewide in Iowa though patrons must visit a William Hill retail location to sign up.
The Horseshoe Council Bluffs property offers a full service sportsbook with five ticket windows and four self-service kiosks. Currently, there are two kiosks at the Harrah’s Council Bluffs property. The Horseshoe sportsbook’s hours are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM to 10 PM, Friday from 10 AM to 11 PM, Saturday from 9 AM to 11 PM and Sunday from 9 AM to 10 PM. The kiosks are available from 10 AM to Midnight seven days a week at both properties and no, I don’t know why they just don’t keep them open 24/7. I’ll see if I can find out what the deal is with that. At least the mobile app is available 24/7.
The retail options in Council Bluffs are a boon for bettors in the area for a couple of reasons. They can not only bet at the property but since Iowa has the silly on-site signup requirement they don’t have to drive as far to set up an account. The Ameristar Council Bluffs Casino Hotel also has a retail sportsbook and they’ve been licensed for online wagering. Presumably, the online platform will be under the Barstool Sports brand and it would follow that they’ll rebrand the retail sportsbook as well. There is some good news–the ‘in person’ registration requirement will expire in 2021 and at that point a number of new mobile options will be available in the state. Why they haven’t suspended the in-person registration during the COVID-19 era like Illinois has is another inexplicable question.
Iowa has a decent number of online options at present. In addition to William Hill there’s DraftKings, FanDuel, Elite Sportsbook (which has also launched in Colorado), Q Sportsbook, PointsBet and the Hard Rock Sportsbook. The bad news is that until 2021 and depending on where a player lives in Iowa they might have to take a long drive to get access to another ‘out’. The new retail to mobile option in Council Bluffs is also good for residents of Kansas City (2 1/2 hours away), Omaha (10 minutes away) and Lincoln, Nebraska (1 hour away).
