Pennsylvania to welcome Fanduel Sportsbook via Valley Forge Casino

While Fanduel expects to set up shop at the Valley Forge Casino.

PlayPennsylvania that sources recently communicated that the sportsbook, which made its initial entry into the world of retail sports betting in July at The Meadowlands in New Jersey, will call the King of Prussia casino home.

While Valley Forge has yet to submit a sports betting application, you can expect that it will do so soon now that an alliance between the daily fantasy sports provider and bookmaker and Valley Forge Casino owner Boyd Gaming Corp (BGC) has been finalized.

Since a hearing on an application didn’t happen at the September 12 meeting of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), the next earliest on-schedule hearing is October 2.

To date, three casinos have already petitioned the board for sports betting applications, including Penn National, which partnering with William Hill, submitted its one-time, $10 million application fee on August 17 for its Hollywood Casino, followed by Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment, which submitted paperwork a week later for sports betting at its Parx Casino facility in Bucks County, as well as its South Philadelphia Turf Club. However, those petitions weren’t acted on at the gaming board’s Wednesday meeting.

According to KYW Newsradio, board spokesman, Doug Harbach said…

“The petitions have to be looked at by our investigative unit and our operations unit, and also, the casino itself has to be prepared. So we’re just not to the point of these being ripe for a board decision.”

Via PGCB’s new regulations, sports betting applications are subject to a 90-day review period before operations can launch. However, that timeline could be shortened by the PGCB, if the board looks favorably upon a request by both ownership groups to expedite the process. If that happens, we still won’t see the FanDuel Sportsbook live at the three casinos until next month, November or possibly even December.

In the meantime, in the four months since Mississippi have all launched regulated sports betting.

On Thursday, FanDuel entered Mississippi’s new legalized sports betting market, when the Boyd Gaming-owned IP Casino Resort Biloxi’s sports betting operation was rebranded, IP Sportsbook and FanDuel Sports Zone.

The first bets were placed at the rebranded sportsbook by Marcus Dupree, Dalton Hilliard, Michael Lewis and Derland Moore. The four football players all have ties to the deep south.

The FanDuel partnership is courtesy of an agreement that gives FanDuel access to all 29 casinos in 10 states where Boyd is currently licensed (with the exception of Nevada) while connecting the operator with the sports betting company’s 8 million customers in 45 states.

Boyd president and Chief Executive Officer, Keith Smith said that thanks to the partnership, his properties will be in a position “to build market-leading sports-betting and online gaming operations in each state.”