For months, The Greenbrier was forced to look up at the sports betting production at the Hollywood Casino.
However, The Greenbrier now claims the top spot in West Virginia sports betting.
Despite having an exclusive retail sportsbook reserved for its guests, the resort is responsible for the majority of the betting handle in the state thanks to its two online sports betting apps.
It launched its FanDuel Sportsbook back in Aug. 2019, then followed that up with the release of BetMGM Sportsbook WV in January.
Although it took some time, these two online sportsbooks are driving a lot of the betting action within the Mountain State.
In the most recent week available on the revenue report, the two mobile platforms combined to accept over $7 million in wagers. This is more than double the $3.4 million Hollywood’s DraftKings WV Sportsbook saw for the week of Sept. 19.
Since the calendar changed to August, The Greenbrier’s apps started to separate themselves from DraftKings. Unfortunately, we don’t have direct insight as to the breakdown between the two mobile apps, but it is fair to say that two books are better than one.
Of course, betting figures were expected to rise with the NBA and NHL restart, plus the beginning of the 2020 NFL and college football seasons.
With such a drastic jump in betting, it seems as though both FanDuel and BetMGM did a great job of promoting their sportsbooks. By giving customers plenty of promotions and deals, these operators acquired lots of customers as sports betting returned.
- Bet & Get up to $250 in Bonus Bets Instantly!
- PLUS up to $1,000 Deposit Bonus
- PLUS $50 Bonus Bet on Deposit
- New User Bonus. T&Cs Apply. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER
FanDuel And BetMGM Lead The Way
Since the start of August, The Greenbrier’s online apps have accepted over $53 million in bets. This represents about 58% of the entire state’s sports betting handle, including retail.
When breaking down the online betting figures separately, FanDuel and BetMGM took in around 76% of online wagers.
These are very impressive sports betting revenue numbers and something that looks like it’s going to continue.
After generating about $2.2 million in handle for the first week of August, The Greenbrier’s online handle keeps increasing.
The next week it jumped up to $2.8 million, followed by over $3.8 million for the week of Aug. 15.
Since that point, online wagering took another massive leap to nearly $7 million. In the four weeks after that, handle hasn’t dropped below this mark.
In fact, online handle exceeded $10 million at The Greenbrier twice. It set a new weekly record for online and retail betting the week of Sept. 12, with almost $10.5 million in mobile wagers.
In total, the resort’s online handle over the last four weeks is more than $37 million.
During that same time period, DraftKings Sportsbook saw around $10 million in bets.
While the online sportsbook’s production is increasing with popular sports back, it isn’t close to The Greenbrier’s combination.
The positive news is that DraftKings is doing well compared to its past performance. Even though it topped $3 million in handle a few times prior to the shutdown, the online sportsbook set a new best for a handle with nearly $3.4 million last week.
With NFL and college football betting here for the foreseeable future, online betting should continue to set new records.
Get $200
- Bet $5 Get $200 in Bonus Bets Guaranteed
- PLUS 3 Weeks of NFL Sunday Ticket
- Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 21+
- To Claim: Click Play Now
Mobile sports betting apps taking the majority of bets
Every retail sportsbook is permitted three mobile betting apps. In the last two weeks of sports wagering in the state, 77% of bets were placed through a mobile app.
In the New Jersey sports betting market (which features over 20 online sportsbooks), mobile handle hovers around 85% percent of the total.
It’s clear that mobile wagering is the way of the present and the future and it is surprising that each casino hasn’t moved forward with launching additional skins.
As the winter approaches and the weather gets colder, residents will be more inclined to stay at home, too. This doesn’t even factor in the possibility of another nationwide quarantine if there’s an upswing in COVID-19 cases.
Providing the maximum amount of online platforms will only help WV casinos maximize their opportunity.
For the first time since sports betting in WV launched, every casino has a figure in the online betting column. Both the William Hill Sportsbook (Mountaineer Casino) and betly Sportsbook (Mardi Gras and Wheeling Island casinos) are recent additions.
This is why being the first to market is a crucial factor in acquiring customers.
The Greenbrier accomplished this and now it is paying off. Even with DraftKings launching the same week as FanDuel, The Greenbrier is still the only one to release a second app.
The resort featured two separate online sportsbooks, whereas the three of the five casinos didn’t have any mobile platforms until last month.
