Barstool Sportsbook to Launch in Illinois

The Barstool Sportsbook app is ready and set to launch in Illinois, just in time for March Madness.

The Barstool online sportsbook will soon be live in Illinois, just in time for March Madness. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy announced via his Twitter account that the sportsbook app would go live in Illinois at noon on Thursday. The Prairie State will become the third state to offer the Barstool sportsbook after the brand previously launched in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The Illinois sports betting launch goes along with the plans revealed by Penn National Gaming CEO Jay Snowden during an earnings call in February. He stated that he hopes to have online platforms available in a total of ten states by the beginning of the next NFL season. The other states he is looking to launch in are New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Colorado, Tennessee, Indiana, and Iowa.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker extended the remote registration legislation in the state in March, with the NCAA Tournament starting March 18. However, residents will not be permitted to bet on Illinois colleges. Illinois posted approximately $500 million in sports betting handle in December, which is the latest report the state has released. This entire handle was made up of mobile apps as casinos in Illinois were shut.

With the addition of the Barstool app, there will be six online sportsbooks in Illinois. In January 2020, Penn National acquired a 36% interest in Barstool Sports. Before this, Barstool was primarily an online media company with an extensive database of rabid followers.

#BarstoolSportsbook goes live in Illinois at noon on Thursday pic.twitter.com/HdO1mXaxFJ

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) March 9, 2021

The Barstool sportsbook app launched in Pennsylvania on September 18 in conjunction with Penn National. The Keystone State was the first location to offer the Barstool Sportsbook app. During its first weekend in operation, the Barstool Sportsbook app was downloaded more than 63,000 times, with an average of 21,000 downloads a day Friday through Sunday.

Barstool Starts Strong in Michigan

Barstool was among the operators that went live in Michigan with online sports betting on January 22. In the opening ten days, there were 48,400 registrations with 26,200 first-time depositors. Additionally, the brand posted a $27.3 million handle and $3.3 million in gross gaming revenue.

Those figures were better when compared to Pennsylvania’s debut weekend. During the opening weekend in the Wolverine State, it had more registrations with 24,445 compared to 21,865 for Pennsylvania. Michigan also beat Pennsylvania with more first-time deposits, with 18,946 compared to 11,294. According to Penn National, there was also a bigger handle in Michigan, with $13.698 million to $8.137 million.

Barstool also experienced a higher daily active user rate (DAU) at 1.8 times higher than the average DAUs in Pennsylvania. Penn National also revealed that the publicity from the launch in Michigan boosted registrations in Pennsylvania by 99% when it was observing the week-over-week numbers in the state.

Online Casino on the Horizon?

Barstool’s online casino has been available in Michigan since February 1 following approval from the Michigan Gaming Control Board. iGaming has not yet been approved in Illinois, but lawmakers have started the process by filing bills that would bring mobile casino gaming to the state.

State Rep. Bob Rita filed HB3142 in February. If the bill passes, it will give authorization to a casino or racetrack to offer internet gaming”. Rita was one of the significant voices supporting the legalization of sports betting in Illinois. If iGaming gets the go-ahead in Illinois, players will likely see Barstool enter the market.

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