CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sports book William Hill US announced its expansion into West Virginia and Mississippi Friday as part of the growing legalized sports betting industry.
The company’s Friday news release didn’t specifically name where it would operate in the Mountain State but it did say it had reached an agreement with a “casino partner.”
According to the news release, “in West Virginia, William Hill will provide retail and mobile/online sports betting to a soon-to-be-announced casino partner.”
William Hill said its new agreement also includes 11 casinos in Mississippi.
One possible scenario is that William Hill would partner with Delaware North which owns both the Mardi Gras Casino in Nitro and the casino at Wheeling Island.
The state Legislature passed a law allowing sports gaming this past legislative session. The law anticipated a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which did so in May.
The five casinos in the Mountain State hope to have sports betting available next month. The casinos in Wheeling and Cross Lanes may have a slightly later starting date for sports betting than some of the others.
“Delaware North anticipates being open for signing up accounts and signing up patrons early in September. They will not be taking live bets until late on in September,” West Virginia Racing Association John Cavacini said during an recent appearance on MetroNews “Sportsline.”
“They want to initiate their bricks and mortar business and the mobile business at the same time. The mobile aspects of this operation are huge. So they will open the latter part of September with both in-house betting at the casinos and their app will be working and operational at that time also.”
Delaware North has signed its contract with a provider for those two casinos, Cavacini said.
MetroNews Statewide Correspondent Brad McElhinny contributed to this story.