As the Philadelphia Eagles prepare to face the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday, bets on the game are now being taken at two Philadelphia-area casinos.
Parx Casino in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, Pennsylvania last week went live with its temporary sports book, just weeks after SugarHouse, in the city of Philadelphia, opened the area’s first sports book. It is the fourth sports book in the state, which kicked off wagering under the new gaming expansion law last spring with the opening of the book at the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course outside of Harrisburg. SugarHouse and Rivers in Pittsburgh—both owned by Rush Street Gaming—opened simultaneously in December.
Wagering is available at windows and 12 kiosks at the temporary book, in the space of the former 360 Lounge at Parx. The $10 million permanent sports book is under construction, with completion slated for June.
Parx officials say they appreciate the Eagles having won the Wild Card game over the Chicago Bears, because it generated Eagles Fever going into the first week of bets.
“I’m not an Eagles fan” Parx Senior VP of Interactive Gaming and Sports Matt Cullen told the new site Pennbets.com, “but I was ecstatic they won because of what it means for business. It keeps everyone so much more engaged, at least for one more week.”
The January 8 date was a “soft launch” of the temporary book, with the official grand opening slated for January 10, with a ribbon-cutting by four local politicians along with Parx CEO Anthony Ricci and Bob Green, chairman of parent Greenwood Gaming.
The Parx book is powered by the Kambi Group, which provided the platform and a network of kiosks—12 in the actual book and another 14 spread through the casino. According to the PennBets report, the vast majority of sports betters used the kiosks to place bets, at least on opening day.
Parx also offers a “mobile bet slip builder.” Since online and mobile wagering haven’t officially begun in Pennsylvania, this feature allows customers to use a smartphone app to program their bets, after which they can bypass lines and simply scan a digital bet slip with their phones.
