Less than two months after opening a pair of brick-and-mortar Indiana sportsbooks, FanDuel’s launch of a mobile sports betting platform in the Hoosier State appears imminent.
“We’re close, very close,” FanDuel President and COO Kip Levin told Hoosier State Bets. “I think in the next few weeks our expectation is that we’ll be live in Indiana.”
FanDuel will join a quickly growing marketplace that could have as many as 10 mobile betting providers over the first year of legalized sports gambling in Indiana. Over the last month, DraftKings Sportsbook and Rush Street Interactive’s BetRivers unveiled mobile betting apps in the Hoosier State.
Levin has been pleased with FanDuel’s early performance at the two retail Boyd Gaming locations — Belterra Casino Resort in Florence and Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City. FanDuel also entered into an official fantasy sports partnership with the Indianapolis Colts Oct. 15 for the remainder of the NFL season. Earlier this year, FanDuel inked a separate partnership with former Colts punter Pat McAfee.
“On the content side of our business, we’ve been programming this new show called More Ways To Win, which is really a sports betting and fantasy preview show,” Levin said. “[McAfee] is obviously very popular in Indiana. He’s made some appearances on that show and he’s doing some work for us so we’re excited about Indiana.”
Let's settle the BIG Daniel Jones debate once and for all…
Is "Danny Dimes" an awesome nickname or a lame one?
RT if it's Awesome 🎯
Like if it's Lame 🙄 pic.twitter.com/d4Hbnou2mp— FanDuel TV (@FanDuelTV) September 28, 2019
Standing out from the crowd
As the market becomes more fragmented, Levin acknowledged that it might be more challenging for FanDuel to distance itself from a large horde of competitors. Still, he pointed to several initiatives in other states that could help the company maintain an edge from a mobile perspective.
For one, he noted that FanDuel’s expansive technology team is constantly iterating its mobile platform to come up with the best possible product. The company has also rolled out unique wagers such as single-game parlays that could attract new customers. FanDuel is currently testing player-game parlays in New Jersey, where a bettor has the ability to parlay the outcome of a game with various player props. Many sportsbooks won’t allow kinds of “correlated” parlays.
Sports betting news (sorta/wink) in SBD now: The @Colts & @FanDuel have a new DFS sponsor deal that will run thru this season. It’s not @FDSportsbook, which can’t promote in @NFL. But no coincidence that mobile sports betting opened in Indiana last week. https://t.co/0UidPDKHmf pic.twitter.com/asqG9vQEZM
— Bill King (@Bill_KingSBJ) October 10, 2019
“Having innovations like that where we are able to tap into our global expertise is a way where we differentiate ourselves,” Levin said.
Indiana is one of eight states nationwide that currently permits state-wide mobile sports betting. The others are: Iowa, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
