Casino City’s Friday Five: Sports betting takeover edition

This week we reached a major milestone in the sports betting world. Legal sports betting in the U.S. celebrated its one-year anniversary on Tuesday. Along with this great achievement, we saw a massive jackpot win, the launch of a sports betting platform, ESPN announcing a sports partnership and a land-based slot tournament.

Let’s begin with some slot play:

5. $1 million slot tournament at M Resort
Today and tomorrow, the Henderson, Nevada resort is offering players the chance to become instant millionaires.

This is the sixth annual mychoice Millionaire Slot Tournament.

Players qualified in events all across the country at mychoice and Marquee Rewards casinos for a chance to win $1 million. Local Las Vegas players participated in the Road to mychoice Millionaire Tournament and Drawings throughout April at M Resort, and nine players earned seats at the main event.

The @mychoice Millionaire Slot Tournament is officially underway. A warm welcome to all attendees at @MResort. pic.twitter.com/2AubBa6rUS

— mychoice (@mychoice) May 16, 2019

4. €2.5 million win at Hyper Casino
Hyper Casino, which launched early this year, has already seen a massive jackpot win.

A 37-year-old player from Sweden became the first tow win NetEnt’s progressive jackpot on Mega Fortune, which was worth €2.5 million.

“Unreal, it’s unbelievable. I do not really consider myself lucky other than for this jackpot. My biggest win prior to this big win was approximately 10,000 SEK,” says the winner.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with this huge win and would like to congratulate the lucky winner on his life-changing jackpot. This just shows that Hyper Casino is one of the best gaming destinations for players and we hope that we’ll soon be celebrating many more big winners in the near future,” said Hyper Casino Marketing Director Tony Leone.

3. Borgata Casino launches sports wagering platform
On Wednesday, Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City introduced its new digital sports betting platform Borgata Sports.

Customers using the app will have the ability to make the same types of sports bets that are available at Borgata Race & Sports Book, including straight bets, parlay bets and futures bets.

Additional online features include the ability to place live in-game bets, daily boosted parlays across multiple sports, multiple deposit methods and a risk-free first bet of up to $250 real cash back.

Borgata made history last June when it became the first Atlantic City casino to accept a legal sports wager under new sports betting regulations in New Jersey and now they are continuing to make strides.

The BorgataSports app has arrived! Now you can place sports bets at Borgata Race & Sports Book AND online anywhere in New Jersey.?? Download today and place your first BorgataSports online bet! Read more: https://t.co/BWK7tXWaK0 pic.twitter.com/rpDue3BSpm

— BORGATA (@BorgataAC) May 14, 2019

2. ESPN and Caesars Entertainment collaborate for sports betting content
ESPN and Caesars Entertainment have announced an agreement to provide sports betting news and entertainment content to fans.

This deal includes a new ESPN-branded studio at The LINQ Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, which will launch in 2020.

"The sports betting landscape has changed, and fans are coming to us for this kind of information more than ever before," said Mike Morrison, VP of Business Development at ESPN. "We are poised to expand our coverage in a big way, and working with a category leader like Caesars Entertainment will help us serve these highly engaged, diverse sports fans with the best and most relevant content possible."

Caesars will also serve as ESPN's official odds data supplier across TV and digital, receiving associated attribution across ESPN.

We're joining forces with @espn to bring the best in sports betting news and entertainment to fans around the world. Learn more about this deal and the new ESPN-branded studio coming to @TheLINQ: https://t.co/FmxsNOHD9o pic.twitter.com/u5zcSnkCBq

— CaesarsEntertainment (@CaesarsEnt) May 14, 2019

1. Legal sports betting in US reaches one-year mark
Tuesday was the one-year anniversary of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) being declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Department of Justice.

We have seen a lot happen in the last year, with eight states introducing legalized sports betting (Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island) and five more that have approved legislation (New York, Arkansas, Montana, Iowa and Indiana).

“There’s no doubt about it, sports betting legalization is the industry’s biggest victory in a generation,” said Sara Slane, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at the American Gaming Association.

The success of sports betting since last May is not only due to the revenue that has been reported; the support from Americans deserves some credit as well. According to a report from the AGA, 63% of Americans support the repeal of PASPA, and nearly 8 out of 10 Americans support legal sports betting in their state.

As for the near future, Slane thinks the positive momentum will continue, mentioning that she wouldn't be surprised if as many as 17 states had legalized sports betting by the end of 2019.

As we celebrate the one year anniversary of PASPA's demise, @AmerGamingAssn Senior VP @Sara_Slane calls #sportsbetting legalization "the industry’s biggest victory in a generation" and says what's transpired since last May has "exceeded expectations." https://t.co/mIAcs5FTNw pic.twitter.com/5iaXtS014O

— Casino City (@casinocity) May 15, 2019