The next wave of Pennsylvania sportsbooks appears well on its way thanks to conditional approval of sports wagering operator licenses by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) on Wednesday.
During its public hearing, the PGCB granted the sports betting operator petitions of Rush Street Interactive and Sports Information Services, Limited (SIS). The former group is the in-house division for Rush Street Gaming, which owns both SugarHouse and Rivers casinos. The latter is the official business name of Kambi, a sports betting company working with three of the six PA casinos seeking sports betting.
As a result, three Pennsylvania casinos now stand mere steps away from launching their PA sports betting operations.
What is left? Well, the last major moves include PGCB testing and final paperwork such as fingerprints for gaming licenses to be turned in to the board.
Rush Street, Kambi receive PGCB green light
The two companies, as noted during the meeting, had “proposed to offer sports wagering on behalf of several … license holders.” Their operations would power Parx Sportsbook, Rivers Casino sportsbook and SugarHouse sports betting.
Each paid the licensing fees and each received conditional approval from the PGCB on Wednesday.
After their license was approved, Kambi’s Chief Commercial Officer Max Meltzer spoke about the company’s future in PA:
“We’re delighted to have received our transactional waiver from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today, which puts us one step closer to launching the Kambi Sportsbook with our partners in the state. I’m confident the players of Pennsylvania will enjoy what Kambi has to offer both on-property and online, particularly through the lens of our fantastic customers, who’ll have the ability to leverage our empowerment tools to differentiate, innovate and create exciting sports betting experiences.”
December launch imminent
Wednesday’s conditional approval allowed all three sportsbooks to clear a major hurdle as they near activation. And it appears all three could be nearing December openings.
Parx Casino, the second PA property to apply for a sports betting license, presented its petition to the PGCB in early October. After nearly two months, Parx could realistically open its doors in December. After that, the South Philadelphia Turf Club can go live after Parx passes testing and opens. It is an off-track betting parlor covered under Parx’s license.
The Bensalem sportsbook has Kambi in its corner, a partnership that went public earlier this month.
Kambi also has agreements with SugarHouse and Rivers, both of which received conditional approval for sports betting licenses in late-October, courtesy of two applications submitted by Rush Street.
The two properties, SugarHouse in Philadelphia and Rivers in Pittsburgh, both are initially aiming for Dec. 1 openings for their temporary sportsbooks. Like Parx, those sportsbooks would seem pressed to go live by within that timeline.
Then again, mere days after it appeared Hollywood Sportsbook was still waiting for paperwork to go through, the Philly facility went through testing and opened. PGCB seems as motivated as the casinos to get things going, so Dec. 1 is not out of the question.
