Sports bettors in New Jersey can, for the first time ever, engage in legal mobile wagering thanks to the soft launch by DraftKings this week of its new DraftKings Sportsbook app. Having gone live on Wednesday, the app which is powered by Kambi, launched with an invite-only period, but essentially it means that punters will soon be able to place sports bets from anywhere within New Jersey’s state lines.
As well as making the whole wagering process more convenient and faster, the app potentially poses a competitive threat to unlicensed and unregulated offshore providers. That would be a welcome development for DraftKings which is clearly intent on driving customers away from the black market toward licensed, fully compliant sportsbook operators.
The company says it is currently working with states that have drafted sports betting legislation in order to obtain operating licences and is prompting sports fans to reach out to state representatives across the US to legislate for sports betting. In an overtly campaigning section on its website, the firm states that betting legally on sports via mobile or computer could soon be a reality, but not without support from the fans. It urges: “Tell your lawmakers to end the offshore black market for sports betting and bring fair and transparent online betting to your state. You can make legalised sports betting in your state a reality!”
When DraftKings Sportsbook does eventually go fully live, bettors will have access to a product that has been specifically tailored to US tastes. Kambi CEO Kristian Nylen told SBC Americas: “Kambi has modified its platform for the US market, with US-specific odds presentation and American terminology, giving the operator the choice of how to present home and away teams in different leagues and additional handicap lines, etc. We’re also providing the most comprehensive in-play offering for all US sports, including a range of unique bets and player specials – it’s a depth of offer others operators, including offshore books, can’t match.”
