Iowa Allows Mobile Sports Betting Account Registration
Iowa just got a huge boost to its sports betting industry on New Year’s Day. The Hawkeye State is now allowing mobile registration for bettors to create accounts from home. Before 2021, Iowans had to go to a sportsbook to create a mobile betting account. Now, people can sign-up from home, which should give a boost to sports betting.
Iowa originally began taking bets in 2019 with these in-person registration laws in place. As good as the Iowa betting numbers have been, it still has limited the state due to geographical limitations with in-person registration only.
Now, Iowans can register for any sportsbook in the state and register for betting account with operators that would be difficult to reach or those not in the area. Iowa will see more growth in 2021 thanks to the change in the rule.
“It’s been a tough year, and if you have to go to a place to register, some people just don’t want to leave their home, or the facilities have been closed,” said Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ director of sportsbook operations.
In November, Iowa hit a record high with $87.2 million being bet. The Hawkeye State has a small population of 3.1 million but continues to produce great numbers every month. Having people being able to register from home will be huge for the state.
Iowans were limited to betting with the sportsbook in the area. Now, they can sign-up with whatever sportsbook they are comfortable with. The people who aren’t even near a sportsbook can now create an account and start betting with the updated laws.
Iowa Betting Impact
Iowa has eight sports betting operators in the state and could add more to the new gaming laws. All the sportsbooks in Iowa are tied to a physical casino, but now, casinos can add more skins and have multiple betting operators thanks to mobile betting.
With the new laws, there is also a chance for Iowa to see a $100 million betting handle in 2021. With more people expected to create mobile betting accounts, the state is more likely to hit nine figures before the year is out.
Most sportsbooks’ goal is now to get between 10-12% market share with online betting. Sportsbooks have been limited to advertising in the local area. It was unlikely for Iowans to drive across the state to create a sports betting account. Now, sportsbooks can advertise across the state in hopes of securing customers from all parts of Iowa.
This should help create more competition among operators, with everyone competing for more users. PointsBet and DraftKings are already offering sign-up bonuses for this weekend’s Iowa-Rutgers college basketball games and a no-brainer boost between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. More sportsbooks will most likely be rolling out similar sign-up promotions to get customers using their platform.
Iowa will continue to put up impressive numbers for being one of the smallest states to legalize sports betting. This could also help other small states get legislation through in hopes of passing in other states, seeing how successful Iowa has been.
The state has nothing but potential heading into 2021.
