Delaware North Splits With Miomni Over WV Sports Betting Dispute


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Task of splitting campfire wood while hunting.

Delaware North is prepared to take the ultimate step to restore its sports betting operation in West Virginia.

The owner of Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras casinos confirmed that it is terminating its relationship with its supplier, Miomni. The relationship was short-lived, surviving for less than six months from announcement to annulment.

The decision comes 23 days into a dispute between Miomni and a third party that has interrupted service for two retail sportsbooks and the BetLucky WV app.

Delaware North statement on Miomni

Here is the Friday statement from Delaware North:

We have notified the West Virginia Lottery Commission that Delaware North is taking steps to terminate its partnership with Miomni Gaming, our management services provider in West Virginia. Since March 6, Miomni’s contract dispute with third-party technology supplier Entergaming has resulted in our inability to accept new sports wagers at our Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras casino sports-betting operations as well as via the BetLucky.com mobile app.

We are evaluating all options to once again provide sports wagering services, and we want our customers to know that identifying and implementing a solution could take several months or longer. In the meantime, we are continuing to honor and redeem all resulted bets and providing our customers with detailed information about how they can access their accounts and withdraw their funds. Support is also available at [email protected] or by calling (866) 807-4007.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. We remain committed to our customers and plan to offer sports betting again in the near future.

Our reporting from earlier in the week includes a comprehensive timeline of the issue, which began with the unexpected interruption on March 6.

Next steps for WV sports betting

The outage has taken the state’s only mobile betting platform offline, as well as two of the five retail sportsbooks. Obviously, getting those back up and running is the first priority. WV sports betting revenue was immediately impacted during the first full week of interruption.

The company does not have a firm timetable for a relaunch, but “several months or longer” puts March Madness betting out of the question, at the very least.

Delaware North will likely need to negotiate with a new supplier, or “management services provider” as its officially known.

Licensure will not be quick, but the group might expedite the process by choosing a partner already approved in WV. Though they both have market-access agreements with competing casinos, DraftKings Sportsbook and William Hill might be candidates.

It’s also worth monitoring whether or not either party faces a regulatory consequence for the failure. Any punishment involving Miomni’s license could have implications for future approvals in other US jurisdictions.

Meanwhile, all WV sports betting approvals appear to be on hold while the WV Lottery works to get a handle on the new Wire Act opinion.