CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Two states in the union have the DraftKings Sportsbook and West Virginia is one of them.
DraftKings launched its mobile sports betting app on Wednesday through Penn National Gaming and Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, just days before the first full weekend college football.
“The DraftKings sports betting app will allow all West Virginians to bet on sports,” Tim Dent, DraftKings Chief Compliance Officer told MetroNews.
“If they are within the borders of West Virginia they can open up the app and place any kind of bets.”
Future, pre-match, in-game, and live bets on many sports and leagues ranging from college football, NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, golf, tennis, and NASCAR are available.
“It’s just going to increase the enjoyment and the entrainment value for the consumer,” Dent said.
“He or she can place bets on this Saturday’s college football on who is going to score next. Those are some of many live in-game bets we have to offer.”
New Jersey became the first state to offer the sports betting platform outside of Nevada last year and has paid out $720 million on 23 million wagers.
DraftKings officials said around 40 percent of the wagering in New Jersey currently takes place within 10 miles of the borders with New York and Pennsylvania, as a person has to be within state lines to bet.
Dent expects the same phenomena to hit border towns in West Virginia.
“We are operating in the state of New Jersey and we see a huge amount of crossover,” he said. “People coming from New York and Pennsylvania coming into the state of New Jersey to sports bet on our mobile app. We expect the same thing to occur in West Virginia.
“People coming in from D.C. and Maryland, a lot of Ohio we expect to see a significant amount of traffic along the border towns.”
DraftKings launched in West Virginia in 2002 as a Daily Fantasy app. Dent said they remain having success in the state in that realm and users can easily transfer over the same account information into the Sportsbook app to get started.
This is the second sports betting app to launch this week, as The Greenbrier launched the FanDuel Sportsbook app on Monday.
Delaware North, which owns Mardi Gras Casino in Nitro and Wheeling Island Casino in Wheeling remains on the sideline when it comes to sports betting. The two casinos’ Bet Lucky sports betting app went dark in March after a contract dispute.