Just in time for March Madness, FanDuel Group recently held an opening ceremony and began taking bets at its new sportsbook at Fairmount Park racino in Collinsville, Illinois. It’s the third sportsbook to open in the region in the past year.
Last November, Fairmount owner William Stiritz and Associates and FanDuel agreed to a partnership to expand the horseracing track and rebrand it as FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing. As part of that deal, FanDuel said would make a “multimillion-dollar investment,” including opening the sportsbook. The new 2,500-square-foot features a 98-inch video screen, 24 65-inch video displays, five live betting windows and 22 self-service betting kiosks.
FanDuel purposely planned the opening date the Fairmount venue to coincide with the first week of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. The American Gaming Association said more than 47 million Americans are expected to make wagers on the 2021 March Madness tournament.
FanDuel Senior Director of Retail Operations Jeff Lowich said, “In the retail sports betting industry, you’ll always see a lot of openings the week of March Madness, the week before the NFL starts. It’s a ‘strike-while-the-iron-is-hot’ type of thing for retail sports betting where we like to get open before the big events take place.”
Lowich said the Fairmount sportsbook will comply with health and safety protocols in regard to Covid-19. Those include social distancing and social distanced seating, plexiglass barriers between the self-service kiosks and disinfecting measures.
