On Monday, Indiana’s eighth legal sportsbook opened its doors to bettors.
The Belterra Casino in Florence, Ind., located about 50 miles southwest of Cincinnati, opened its FanDuel Sportsbook at 1 p.m. local time with former Bengal Ken Anderson placing the ceremonial first bet. The sportsbook comes under a partnership between FanDuel and Boyd Gaming, operator of Belterra.
The @FDSportsbook @Belterra is officially open, with @Bengals star Ken Anderson placing the first bet for Cincinnati to beat San Francisco this coming Sunday! 🏈 #SportsBetting #FootballSeason #BelterraSportsbook #FanDuel pic.twitter.com/HdUoNueQyQ
— Belterra Casino (@Belterra) September 9, 2019
In about 20 minutes @FDSportsbook will open its southern Indiana sportsbook at @Belterra in Florence, located roughly halfway between Cincinnati and Louisville. pic.twitter.com/Bw3nSATFXc
— Steve Bittenbender (@CasinoOrgSteveB) September 9, 2019
It was FanDuel’s second Indiana opening. A FanDuel Sportsbook opened at the Blue Chip Casino in northwest Indiana on Thursday. Blue Chip is also a Boyd Gaming casino.
On Aug. 30, the Indiana Gaming Commission gave Belterra its authorization to begin retail betting on Sept. 9. Unlike some other properties in the Hoosier State, Belterra missed the first Sunday of NFL wagering, but the casino will be able to take bets on the Monday Night Football games between the Oakland Raiders and the Denver Broncos and the Houston Texans and the New Orleans Saints. The NFL is the most popular sport for betting in America, more than likely regardless of state.
Belterra is located in relative close proximity to Cincinnati, but the sportsbook at Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg is the closest to the city at 25 miles west of downtown.
The first Indiana books opened on Sept. 1.
About Belterra Casino
The casino, which opened in 2000, has more than 47k square feet of gaming space, with more than 1,200 slot machines, 45 table games, and a couple of poker tables.
Belterra has about 5.3% of the statewide gaming market, according to the most recent figures from the Indiana Gaming Commission. There are 13 casinos statewide.
Hollywood Lawrenceburg has about 7.9% of the Hoosier State casino gaming market.
FanDuel will power Belterra’s online/mobile sports wagering platform, whenever the IGC gives it the green light to do so. Each licensee is allowed three online/mobile skins.
Implications for Ohio sports betting
Boyd Gaming is also the owner-operator of the sister property, Belterra Park Gaming & Entertainment Center, a racino located just outside downtown Cincinnati.
The property, which opened in 2014, will likely be home to a FanDuel Sportsbook should Ohio legalize sports wagering and allow the racinos in the state to have the activity. A sportsbook at Belterra Park would have to compete with a more conveniently located book in downtown Cincinnati.
In April, JACK Entertainment, owner of JACK Casino Cincinnati, agreed to sell that property and its operations to Hard Rock International and VICI Properties. The $780 mm deal also included JACK’s Turfway Park, a Kentucky racetrack located about 10 miles south of Cincinnati.
Turfway would have a sportsbook if Kentucky is able to legalize the regulation of sports wagering.
The tri-state area (Indiana-Ohio-Kentucky) is setting up to be a highly competitive market for sports betting. According to the American Gaming Association, the Cincinnati-area gaming market generated $618.3 mm in gaming revenue in 2018, good for 18th on the nationwide gaming market rankings.
