West Virginia Lottery Still Won’t Allow DraftKing’s Sports Betting App

It seems that the gamblers from West Virginia will have to wait a little bit longer for mobile sports betting.

Why?

Well, even though it was announced in May that the DraftKings sports betting app will be launched soon…

…the state Lottery revealed that they had to delay it for the foreseeable future.

More Details on the App

DraftKings signed an agreement with Penn National Gaming and its Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races venue to launch mobile sports betting app in this state.

The West Virginia lottery, which is at the same time also a gambling regulator for this US state’s gambling market, tested the app at the end of May.

Even though the testing procedure went well, the Lottery had to delay the launch for the app because of the Federal Wire Act.

The problem is that the physical location of the servers is not in compliance with the Federal Act, so the regulator will have to wait for more approval.

A Word from the Lottery Director

“Everyone involved wants to make sure we proceed the right way. The construction of the network and the mobile app involves many parties and can affect the operations of other jurisdictions,” West Virginia Lottery director, John Myers, explained.

“The Lottery wants to see a successful launch as soon as possible, but we must make sure that the citizens of West Virginia and our employees are not put at risk. We are working closely with the parties involved, however it will take time to build the system,” he added.

The Exact Date Still Unknown

Even though the West Virginia Lottery has stopped the launch of the app, it still hasn’t given any additional information regarding the exact date when the app is expected to go live in this state.

Ever since the Delaware North’s BetLucky app, which was operated through a t venture with Miomni Gaming, went offline in March…

…the gamblers from the state of WV didn’t have the option to place their bets via mobile.

Even though the company at first blamed the termination of services on the service interruption, it was revealed later on that the problem was in the dispute between Miomni and rival supplier, Enterg Software Solutions.

The Dispute

Delaware North decided to end the contract it had with Miomni a little bit after that, so its online and land-based sportsbooks had to be closed…

…and it stayed that way to this day.

In April, the operator launched a lawsuit against Miomni, but the supplier constantly negated having done anything wrong.

Also, company representatives claimed that Delaware North did not hold rights to use software that powered its sports betting platform.

So, as the first step to prove this in court, it was demanded from Enterg to show proofs of any ‘kill switch’ integrated into its platform.

Enterg failed to find its evidence by the deadline of June 3, which was set by Judge David Edwards last week.

Source:

“West Virginia Lottery delays launch of DraftKings sports betting app”, Robin Harrison-Millan, igbnorthamerica.com, June 6, 2019.