The gambling company that has long had Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson on its celebrity endorser roster will now actually be available for most Sixers fans to try out. PointsBet Pennsylvania is coming thanks to a market access deal with PA-based Penn National.
There’s no official timeline for when the PointsBet online casino and Pointsbet Sportsbook will launch in PA. It’s also unclear just how PointsBet intends to grab a significant share of the market entering at this juncture.
How PointsBet Pennsylvania got this far
Recently, Penn National Gaming and PointsBet expanded their partnership that’s been in place since late 2019. Among other things, that gave PointsBet access to one of PNG’s PA skins.
The agreement doesn’t specify exactly which Penn property in PA will delegate its skins to PointsBet. Most likely, that will be its yet-to-open “mini-casino” in York.
PNG’s two existing facilities and other forthcoming mini-casino, Hollywood Morgantown, already have digital partners, including the “in-house” brand Barstool Sportsbook. While Barstool and PointsBet technically will compete with each other for sports betting handle in the future, it’s all the same for Penn.
This will be the second or third market for PointsBet’s casino platform, following its launch in New Jersey. PointsBet also has market access for iGaming in Michigan but has not yet launched there.
PointsBet currently offers online and retail sports betting in MI and NJ, along with Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. Altogether, it has some form of market access deal in 14 states.
While it has established a presence in those markets, it has yet to establish itself as a leader in any. Can it change that in PA?
PointsBet’s marketing tools
Like most other PA online gambling companies, marketing is pivotal for PointsBet. In that vein, PointsBet has two primary avenues in PA.
Its partnership with Penn will play into this, as visitors to the York “mini-casino” will undoubtedly see a lot of the brand around. The other primary delivery method will be through a media partnership.
PointsBet made a deal with NBC last year, making it the sports betting service of choice for all of NBC’s media channels. That not only includes the sports social media accounts and websites but its television channels as well.
That means a lot of PointsBet commercials during 76ers, Flyers, and Phillies games, as NBC Sports Philadelphia has the broadcast rights for all those events. As a launch date nears, the frequency of ads on NBC properties may increase. The use of Iverson in those spots may increase as well.
That may not mean very much with online casino players, though. On that side, PointsBet will probably rely on web ads informing players of deposit and registration bonuses.
How soon might those start popping up and what might that entail? The pending platform in MI and the existing online casino product in NJ tell us a little about that.
What’s the deal with PointsBet Casino?
For new customers in NJ, PointsBet Casino offers two separate bonuses. The first is a $25 registration bonus. Players who choose to make a cash deposit will enjoy a 100% match up to $250, with a minimum of $10.
PointsBet’s menu of games includes live dealer games from Evolution Gaming, slots, table games, and video poker. The other game providers on PointsBet’s roster include Bally, IGT, Konami, and NetEnt.
There’s little information about when PointsBet might launch in PA, though the company would probably like to do so as soon as it’s practical. The company’s leaders don’t see the late entry into PA as a serious obstacle, however.
PointsBet CEO Johnny Aitken seems to feel PointsBet can use its market access and publicity tools to become one of several brands that PA online casino players frequent. He’s quite comfortable with that, too.
“We know coming from Australia, it’s very rare for clients to hold one betting account – they can hold two, to three, to four,” Aitken said. “We feel supremely confident in PointsBet being one of those four.”
Whenever PointsBet Pennsylvania gets near its debut, PA gamblers will likely have a hard time not being exposed to the brand. Whether that will result in PointsBet making up ground in the market remains to be seen, though.