Illinois Extends Online Sports Betting Registration
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Illinois bettors continue to hear good news as Governor J.B. Pritzker extended his executive order to allow online sports betting registration in the state. The extension was set to expire last week, but Pritzker extended it until November 14.
With the U.S. starting to see a spike in coronavirus cases, Illinois understands how important it is to continue to allow mobile registration. The state also has more sports betting companies with FanDuel, DraftKings, PointsBet, and William Hill all entering in the previous four months.
Illinois finally realizes how important it is to allow mobile registration to people in the state. Online registration was temporarily banned for a month, starting in late-July. The state went a full month of no online registration until that was reversed on August 21.
Since then, Illinoians have been able to create mobile betting accounts from home. In return, Illinois saw $140 million wagered in August thanks to mobile betting sign-up.
Big Boost for Online Sportsbooks
When Pritzker did not extend the executive order for online registration, it happened the day before DraftKings was expected to launch in Illinois. Some experts believed that it was to give the online sports betting operator a tougher time as they found a loophole around Illinois’ 18-month “penalty box” period.
It also hurt DraftKings as its retail sportsbook is located in Alton, four and a half hours south of Chicago. The sports betting operator couldn’t capitalize on the Chicago market without mobile registration being available. Before the executive order, any sportsbook not located in the Chicagoland Area would have had difficulty competing in Illinois compared to states allowing people to sign-up and bet online.
Regardless, that only lasted a month, and DraftKings and FanDuel were able to expand on the Illinois market once people could start registering for betting accounts online. Although BetRivers in Illinois dominates the market, it could be a matter of time before FanDuel and DraftKings catch up.
This also helped the Australian sportsbook, PointsBet, enter Illinois and cash in on the mobile registration. They partnered with the Chicago Bears and have a retail location located 12 miles southwest of Chicago.
Allowing online registration only proved to be the right move. The state saw $140 million wagered in the first full month of major U.S. sports since Illinois launched sports betting in March before the coronavirus put the world to a halt.
Illinois Sports Betting
After getting off to a slow start due to coronavirus, the Illinois sports betting market exploded once major U.S. sports returned in August. Along with the executive order extension on August 21, bettors were able to get action on MLB, NBA, and NHL in August.
This allowed the betting market to see what the potential could be in the state. Now, Illinois waits to see what the betting report will show for September with all four major U.S. sports and college football being played.
If August could hit $140 million in August, then September should easily crush that number thanks to online registration and another full month of sports betting.
