The partnership between bookmaker William Hill and Hollywood Casino/Penn National Gaming in Pennsylvania is officially over.
The retail sportsbooks at Meadows Casino and Hollywood Casino are now powered by Kambi odds, says Scot McClintic, vice president and head of sportsbook at Penn National Gaming.
Penn National Gaming’s partnerships hinted at William Hill break up
On July 31, Penn National Gaming announced that it entered into multiyear agreements for online sports betting and iGaming with big-name sports betting operators:
- DraftKings
- PointsBet
- theScore
- The Stars Group
As part of the deal, UK-based Kambi now powers Penn National’s in-house sportsbooks across its portfolio.
The July announcement and pending approval of DraftKings seemed to be the nail in the coffin for the Penn National/William Hill partnership, which never got off the ground after its trial run. The official switch to Kambi at Hollywood marks the end of the William Hill era.
DraftKings coming to PA in November
Head of Development at Penn National Chris Rodgers said during the October PGCB meeting:
“We think DraftKings is an ideal partner for the Meadows. It’s a well-known, trusted brand. We expect them to be a market leader in Pennsylvania as well.”
Once DraftKings (presumably) receives conditional approval on Oct. 30, it should hopefully be a matter of a week or two before the online site is live in the Keystone State.
When DraftKings launches in Pennsylvania, it will join an already competitive online sportsbook market. DraftKings is already one of the top two performers in New Jersey. The other market leader is FanDuel, which currently possesses over half the market share in Pennsylvania.
The timeline of DraftKings is relatively clear, but the launch of a Hollywood-branded online sportsbook remains up in the air.
Betslip Builder available at Meadows
With Kambi powering things at The Meadows Sportsbook, the retail location offers Kambi’s “Betslip Builder.” Other Kambi powered books, Parx and Rivers, unveiled this useful feature in advance of online betting launch. It allows customers to build betting slips beforehand on their phone. Then, they can take their betting slips to the sportsbook to place their wagers. Employees will scan the QR code on your ticket and issue you a betting slip at the counter.
