The NFL season in Pennsylvania kicks off this weekend, and PA sportsbooks are sweetening the pot with promos for bettors.
Attention is on two players in the Keystone State: Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles and Big Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
And the PA-based company Penn National Gaming hopes to launch its Barstool Sports online sportsbook in the coming days, missing the opening weekend of the football season.
Meanwhile, Mount Airy Casino founder Louis DeNaples, barred from playing a role in the business of the casino, keeps finding ways to entangle himself in the company, which is now owned in trust by his relatives.
Penn National Gaming joining online sportsbook rush with Barstool
Penn National Gaming’s delayed rollout of its Barstool app missed the NFL season kickoff on Thursday and will also miss the first weekend of games, including the two PA teams’ openers.
Testing will take place Sept. 15-17, though that depends on final iOS app approval, according to a Penn press release.
The full launch is set for Sept. 18 but depends on approval by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). The company had hoped to be online by the end of August.
When the Barstool app is approved, PA will have 10 online sports betting apps. Penn is expected to rebrand its Hollywood retail sportsbook to Barstool eventually as well.
NFL betting in PA focuses on Wentz and Roethlisberger
The Eagles have the seventh-best odds (+2000) at most Pennsylvania sportsbooks to win Super Bowl LV. PA sports bettors can still place wagers on season-long Eagles futures or back individual players like Wentz by betting on Eagles players props.
We also give you a rundown of Steelers team futures, plus Roethlisberger and other Steelers players futures, here at PlayPennsylvania. The quarterback is a favorite for Comeback Player of the Year, while the defense is a favorite in some statistical categories.
Johnny Avello, director of operations at DraftKings, says his company has never offered more futures betting markets.
Find all the Week One lines and see who the public is backing in this NFL Week One betting preview.
Mount Airy Casino founder keeps it in the family
DeNaples continues orbiting Mount Airy Casino, despite orders to the contrary from PA regulators. After settling a perjury plea, he was to have no hands-on involvement with the casino company he built.
Regulators forced him to pass on his ownership and control of the facility to his children and grandchildren. However, he remains licensed by PA as the guarantor of loans to the low-grossing casino property.
Last year, he showed up at a hearing regarding a mini-casino Mount Airy wanted to build in Western, PA, a plan eventually axed by regulators. Just recently, a bank he controls with relatives approved a $50 million loan to the casino owned in trust by his children and grandchildren.
Mount Airy is due for relicensing next August.
