Circa Sports, the wagering platform launched last summer by downtown Las Vegas casino owner Derek Stevens, has its first location outside Nevada.
The company reached an agreement Thursday with Century Casinos to provide online and mobile sports betting for Century Casino Cripple Creek in Colorado. The state’s voters approved sports betting in last November’s election, and the activity is expected to launch by May 1. Regulations are expected to be approved by the Colorado Division of Gaming this month.
The deal gives Circa Sports one of Century Casinos’ sports wagering skins. Stevens and Circa, along with Century, have active applications in for sports betting licenses with state gaming regulators. The 15-year agreement does not involve a retail sports book.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Circa currently has retail sportsbooks at both the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Casinos, the downtown properties owned by Stevens. He is currently in the process of building Circa Casino Resort, downtown’s first all-new ground-up hotel-casino in 40 years. The centerpiece of the 700-room property is a three-story sportsbook with a giant video wall and television studio operated by VSiN.
The resort is scheduled to open in December.
Stevens, who was previously licensed in Colorado as part owner of the former Riviera in Black Hawk, said Circa hoped to launch when the first wave of sports betting operating operation are approved.
An odds board inside the Circa Sportsbook at the Golden Gate in Las Vegas/Photo By Jeff Scheid
“We had a pretty good alignment and we wanted the longer duration of the deal because we were committed to making a pretty sizable investment in the brand and the marketing component,” Stevens said Thursday in an interview at the Golden Gate.
Two years ago, Stevens visited the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas to look at sports betting products. He said at the time that the goal was to take his own sports betting platform into different markets. Currently, 14 states have legal sports betting, with six states, including Colorado, expected to launch this year.
Because of the Colorado mobile sports betting opportunity – with both mobile registration and mobile account funding – Stevens said he didn’t really discuss any retail sportsbook opportunity at the Cripple Creek casino. The property’s primary feeder market is Colorado Springs.
“I was more interested in maximizing our spend on marketing, as opposed to a retail book,” Stevens said. “We would rather spend our initial investment on marketing Circa throughout Colorado.”
Stevens’ ultimate goal for Circa Sports is to be a multi-state leader for sports futures and higher sports betting app limits. He said the app currently boasts one of the most competitive wagering menus in Las Vegas.
Century, which is headquartered in Colorado Springs, also owns a second Colorado property, Century Casino Central City, and five casinos and racetracks in Canada.
#exclusive – Circa Sports, Century Casinos agree to sports betting deal for Colorado. –@howardstutz, CDC Gaming Reports. https://t.co/o5YIOtpENB @CircaSports @CenturyCasinoCC @DerekJStevens #CDCgaming
— CDC Gaming Reports (@CDCNewswire) February 6, 2020
In December, Century acquired the operations of three gaming properties from Eldorado Resorts – Isle Casino Cape Girardeau and Lady Luck Casino Caruthersville in Missouri and Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in West Virginia – in partnership with real estate investment trust VICI Properties for $385 million.
Stevens said the companies briefly discussed sports betting operations in other Century markets, but the primary focus was the Colorado deal.
“I’d rather move more strategically than everywhere,” Stevens said. “There are some states we don’t have interest in. Colorado, however, came to the forefront pretty quickly for us and we’re excited about that.”
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
