PointsBet is launching its first foray into iGaming as part of its deal with the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians in the Upper Peninsula. The partnership marks the Australian company’s first with a tribal market.
“The opening of the U.S. sports betting and iGaming market was already a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell, said on a conference call detailing the quarterly business report. “The trending behaviors of moving to an online environment as a result of Covid-19 … will likely create an even larger opportunity.”
The Lac Vieux tribe operates Northern Waters Casino Resort in Watersmeet, near the Wisconsin border, according to PlayMichigan.
In addition to mobile sports betting and negotiations to operate the Northern Waters retail sportsbook, the deal will be PointsBet’s first online casino anywhere once Michigan sorts through the regulatory framework.
“We will have that iGaming opportunity seen side by side with sports betting, which is really important,” Swanell said. “We’re productively using this time that’s very available to us to progress our technology and our go-live solution to our iGaming product.”
Some Michigan state legislators and industry advocates expect the process to accelerate in the wake of gambling revenue losses, Swanell said.
“We’re monitoring that situation closely,” he said. “We think we can go live earlier than otherwise planned, and we would work towards that.”
Whenever PointsBet does launch in Michigan, the app will offer a unique spin on mobile sports betting. In addition to traditional wagers, “PointsBetting” offers variable bets where outcome amounts are dictated by the margin of a bet’s win or loss. The company also boasts more prop bets than competitors, including such as quarterback completion percentage bets in football and the time of a first basket by a particular player in basketball.
