The power and energy of retail sportsbooks often hit their annual pinnacle during football season. The retail betting environment galvanizes fans, compounds excitement, and is the quintessential backdrop for major sporting events such as the Super Bowl and March Madness. And although mobile sports betting drives significant betting handle where it’s permitted, retail betting is still a driver of incremental revenue and serves as a strategic player acquisition tool for land-based casinos and racetrack operators. Few in the industry know retail sports betting better than IGT PlaySports. As the exclusive retail platform provider for FanDuel Group and with operations in more than 30 jurisdictions across North America, IGT PlaySports continues to expand its footprint into new jurisdictions and redefine the retail experience via award-winning self-service betting technologies.
“The last couple of months have been really exciting for the IGT PlaySports team. In addition to helping our customers ramp up for football season, we’ve deployed our retail solution in Puerto Rico and Nebraska, grown our presence in Wisconsin, and launched impressive self-service retail betting solutions,” recounts Joe Asher, IGT President of Sports Betting.
Impressive indeed. In August, IGT announced the launch of the PeakBarTop with sports betting with the company’s Total Gaming software. This one-of-a-kind solution goes in any bar environment and offers players the option to play IGT’s Game King video poker, slots, or keno and place pre-game and in-game wagers – all with the same gaming wallet.
“The PeakBarTop with sports betting is a game changer,” continued Asher. “I hoped a solution like this would come to market for years, and given IGT’s legacy in bartop video poker and momentum in sports betting, there is simply no better-qualified supplier than IGT.”
St. Croix Casinos in Wisconsin was the first to introduce this solution, which was named “Best Productive Innovation” in the 2022 Global Gaming Awards. According to a news release, Loren Benjamin, St. Croix Casino General Manager said, “IGT video poker has been a mainstay of St. Croix Casinos for decades, and our recently opened IGT PlaySports-powered sportsbooks have already started driving new player acquisition and engagement. In introducing IGT’s PeakBarTop with Total Gaming, St. Croix Casinos are providing players the market’s most advanced sports betting interface for land-based casinos on quality hardware that they readily embrace.”
IGT followed the launch of the PeakBarTop with sports betting with yet another milestone achievement, the world debut of the Total Gaming CrystalFlex terminal. Like the PeakBarTop cabinet, this solution offers players the choice of sports betting, video poker, keno, and slots, but also provides live streaming of sporting events and can be placed anywhere on a gaming floor. IGT described the units as a comfortable, semi-private betting carrel with a 27-inch display that is equipped with a USB charging port and private headphone jack.
“Today’s consumers want choice and convenience in all that they do. In offering additional ways to place bets, we’re helping our customers meet their players’ needs and extending the thrill of sports betting to new areas of their properties,” noted Asher.
IGT PlaySports is already a leader in the self-service space and reports having more than 900 PlaySports kiosks in the field. It’s also the only supplier to offer a tablet-based solution, the PlaySports BetPad, which is currently a hit at FanDuel Sportsbooks in Maryland.
Both the PeakBarTop with sports betting and the Total Gaming CrystalFlex terminal will be on display in IGT’s booth 3659 at G2E next week.
