888 has secured market access for online sports betting, poker and casino in three new states.
The London-listed operator today announced plans to launch its 888Sport brand in Colorado, Indiana and Iowa next year.
- In Colorado, 888Sport will launch under the license of the Colorado Grande Casino based in Cripple Creek.
- In Iowa, 888 will launch under the license of Catfish Bend Casinos II LLC.
- Over in Indiana, 888 partnered with with Harrah’s Hoosier Park, which is owned by Caesars Entertainment.
The planned launches will put 888 is live in six US states, also including New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada.
‘Major milestone’ for 888Sport
Yaniv Sherman, SVP head of commercial development, said the company was still looking at “strategic partnerships” that could provide brand-building and market access opportunities in US sports betting in the future.
“Expanding 888sport.com into these three states represents another major milestone in our ongoing growth across the regulated US online gaming market. We have deployed our proprietary sports, casino and poker technology in the US, and our exciting pipeline of new products will deliver industry-leading propositions to our customers.
“This positions us to deliver strong growth with our 888 brand, and as a B2B partner of choice.”
Potential partners?
In a recent Q&A with LSR, Sherman said 888 was looking for a Barstool-style deal with genuine buy-in from a media partner.
Sherman highlighted names like Fansided, Bleacher Report, SBNation, The Athletic and DAZN as options.
888 also owns proprietary sports betting technology and could look to offer that to potential partners in access deals. Today’s access deals also include online casino and poker, although there are no firm plans for legalization in the three states.
888 CEO Itai Pazner told investors earlier this year he was confident about seeing new online gambling legislation across the US in 2021. Legislation could be slow to appear, though, as states sort out coronavirus-related protocols for meeting.
