After a lengthy two-year wait to open its sportsbook at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, leading UK bookmaker Betfred has been recommended for licensing approval by the Nevada Gaming Control Board — meaning it can soon be a home for legal sports betting in the Silver State.
On Wednesday, board members voted 2-0 in favour of Betfred Group Ltd. at a special meeting held in Las Vegas. Now it will be up to the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) to grant final approval of the sportsbook's license at its monthly meeting held today.
Should the Commission confirm the recommendation to offer sports betting in Nevada, this would be the 10th U.S. state in which Betfred operates — joining Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.
If the NGC grants the licenses as it is expected to do so, the UK gaming giant is expected to be up and running at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas within the next few weeks in order to start taking bets in advance of the Super Bowl on February 12.
Plans for the Betfred sportsbook facility at the Virgin call for the installation of five 80-inch screens and seating arrangements for up to 100 bettors in the relatively compact 1,300-square-foot space. Additional features include a state-of-the-art IGT betting system with four betting windows and several self-serve betting kiosks.
The Betfred sportsbook will operate under the management of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which runs the Virgin casino. All but one of the employees at the facility will work for Mohegan, with one full-time Betfred manager on the premises.
Present at Wednesday's NGCB hearing was Betfred's 79-year-old founder and chairman Fred Done — the "Fred" of Betfred — who described how he turned his company into a global gaming giant even though he "never set out to build an empire".
Betfred was founded in the north of England in 1967 by Fred and his brother Peter and is now the second-largest retail sportsbook in the country after Entain. Betfred operates some 1,470 betting shops in the UK and has more than 11,000 employees worldwide.
Betfred is also planning on launching in six additional states in the U.S. in 2023: Oregon, Indiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alabama, and Kansas.
Betfred faced tough questioning over $3.6 million UK fine
Done and his Betfred team faced tough questioning from Control Board members who sought additional clarifications regarding its failure to disclose a recent heavy fine levied against the operator by British regulators.
In September, Betfred was fined the equivalent of $3.6 million by the UK Gambling Commission for failing to adequately maintain social responsibility and money-laundering controls after the bookmaker accepted tens of thousands of pounds from bettors without the benefit of safety checks.
The Control Board did, however, accept the company's explanation that it was not aware of the extent of the information it was required to provide in its license application.
"With many of the changes that have been made to improve due diligence (and leadership changes), improving communications flow, and building a centralized reporting structure and with the good reputation of Betfred, I’m comfortable moving forward with the application, given these improvements and acknowledgement and willingness to take responsibility," said outgoing Control Board chair Brittnie Watkins.
