MGM Resorts International announced plans to launch mobile sports betting at 12 of its Nevada properties. The operator will partner with gaming and lottery giant GTECH S.p.A. to add live in-play betting to MGM sports books, mobile sports wagering outside the properties and mobile casino games within properties.
The mobile technology will provide real-money mobile casino and slot gambling within some MGM resorts, allowing customers to play on mobile devices anywhere inside a property, and will allow gamblers to place bets with MGM sports books any time on their mobile phones, as long as they are within the state of Nevada. Geolocation technology is being provided by GeoComply.
Players will be able to create sports-betting accounts and handle banking on-property at any of the 12 resort casinos. The mobile gaming platform, which will allow wagers for real money on a variety of house-banked games, will be available at 10 Nevada MGM properties.
“This sports betting solution will allow MGM to capitalize on a new system with a single trading management interface, which could help improve global profitability across all sales channels,” said Ludovico Calvi, head of betting for GTECH.
“These solutions will offer live mobile betting guests of MGM Resorts in Nevada for the first time,” said Matteo Monteverdi, GTECH senior vice president of iGaming and Americas interactive. “They will also enable MGM Resorts to connect with more players in a new and relevant way, and will enable MGM to offer more gaming without requiring more space on the gaming floor.”
“MGM Resorts selected GTECH to assist with the modernization of its sports betting offering based on GTECH’s end-to-end experience, expertise, and technological innovation,” said Thomas Mikulich, MGM’s senior vice president of business development. “The GTECH OnPremise solution will ensure that our players enjoy convenient and exciting new ways to wager seamlessly across multiple gaming channels, by sports betting via mobile from anywhere within Nevada, and through mobile table games and slots on premise at 10 MGM properties, whether they’re at a sports book, slot floor, restaurant or poolside.”
GeoComply’s technology will be integrated into the on-property mobile casino and sports book apps to verify a player’s location before they play. “MGM Resorts has been looking for creative ways to bring interactive casino gaming to mobile devices for quite some time,” said Mikulich. “GeoComply’s geofencing capabilities will provide an effective and efficient means to transform our casino floors in Nevada into spaces where patrons can use their cell phones and tablets for legal casino gaming.”
GeoComply CEO Anna Sainsbury added, “We’re honored to work with MGM Resorts on this unique project. In-building geolocation has never been done before in this space. We have morphed our best-of-breed technologies used for Nevada poker and New Jersey into an on-property solution which can pinpoint the location of a player within a few feet.”
MGM joins a crowded field of mobile sports betting apps in Nevada, along with Boyd Gaming, CG Technologies (formerly Cantor), William Hill US, South Point and Station Casinos.
