Sports betting in Arkansas ramped up a little more with the opening of a sportsbook at Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis on January 28.
The casino took wagers for the Super Bowl, NBA games, college basketball, NASCAR racing, PGA tournaments and more, Southland marketing manager Natalie Carlson said.
“Our proximity to Memphis gives us an edge in the sports betting market,” she said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The seven-member Arkansas Racing Commission on January 25 voted to authorize the casino to begin offering sports betting, said Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration.
Southland Casino Racing is the third Arkansas casino to win the commission’s approval to offer such wagering.
“We have been working toward this for a while,” Jeff Strang, Southland’s senior marketing director, said.
International Game Technology signed a multistate sports betting agreement January 28 with Southland’s parent company, Delaware North Cos. Gaming & Entertainment, to provide retail sports betting in Arkansas and West Virginia.
“Delaware North is confidently partnering with IGT to deliver sports betting through world-class IGT PlaySports technology,” Brian Hansberry, the company’s Gaming Division president, said in a news release. “IGT is a serious sports betting technology provider with a proven commitment to customer success, excellent global reputation, and a reliable, omni-channel sports betting solution for the U.S. market.”
The IGT system is the same one that the Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff uses, David Wolf, Southland’s president and general manager, told the commission’s meeting.
Sportsbook Bar & Grill will have three retail betting windows and five self-service kiosks, and the racing main pari-mutuel line on the mezzanine on the second floor will have three retail betting windows and four self-service kiosks.
Amendment 100 to the Arkansas Constitution authorized what is now called Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis and Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs to expand into full-fledged casinos. The amendment also allows the Racing Commission to license a casino apiece in Jefferson and Pope counties.
The Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff started offering sports betting on October 1. Casino officials plan to open an 80,000-square-foot casino with 2,000 slots across the street by the end of this year.
Since July, the total bet on Southland’s slot machines has ranged each month from $260 million in September to $286 million in December, according to a Racing Commission report. Southland officials announced plans for an expansion that includes a new casino complex and a 20-story hotel.
