As Indian Country gears up to bring go into the sports betting business, tribal casinos learned about a success story Thursday called “A Miracle in Mississippi” and a roadmap for them to follow.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians took centerstage to tell attendees at the Indian Tradeshow & Convention that they, too, can be successful when they launch their sportsbooks. More than 40 tribes across the country have already visited their operation to learn how to do exactly that.
The Choctaws were the first Native American tribe in the nation to open a sports betting operation, less than four months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on single-wager sports bets outside of Nevada and, more important, in time for the 2018 football season.
In August 2018, it reached a deal with International Game Technology to provide sports betting technology and within three weeks, on Aug. 30, it opened its book at the Pearl River Resorts’ Golden Moon Hotel & Casino in Choctaw. It later added books to its other properties.
It was all about competing with commercial casinos that were opening at the end of August ahead of college football and the NFL, and it has been paying dividends ever since, earning higher revenues and attracting more guests.
Tribal leaders said they’ve learned that a sportsbook isn’t just an amenity, but produces incremental revenue and cash flow and is a popular enhancement to gaming operations.
Victor Rocha, chairman of the conference put on by the National Indian Gaming Association, praised the tribe for showing others the way to be successful.
“This is a unique case where the sports betting is exclusively owned by the tribe,” Rocha said. “Here is one of the first tribes to dip their toe into sports betting, and they have more experience than any other tribe in the country.”
Bill Burton, chief information officer and vice president of audio visual and entertainment for the Pearl River Resort, said opening the sportsbook was a great new revenue stream for the casino, which draws regionally from southern states. He urged tribes to take it on themselves, rather than contract it out.
“We’re in one of the most sports crazy areas in the United States with the SEC (college football league),” Burton said. “We’re surrounded by it. We knew we wanted to be active within 90 days before SEC football started, so we decided to just go retail.” The tribe has since added kiosks, along with mobile betting that is limited to the property but mobile is important for in-gaming betting on site.
“If someone tells you that you can’t do it, you can. You just need your tribe behind you, a dedicated team, and people to help you. We’re among the people who can come and help you.”
Burton told tribes that they don’t need to build giant Las Vegas-style sportsbooks, but they do need enough space for audio-visual broadcasts of games, odds boards, and food and beverage.
“We took a very profitable slot area and built a sportsbook (at one of our smaller casinos),” Burton said. “That would be like the craziest thing you would ever think of doing, but when we watch it on surveillance tapes every day the lines there never end.”
Bea Carson, chairwoman of the MBCI-Choctaw Gaming Commission, said her tribe had a huge learning curve. Only one person in the company knew anything about sports betting. So they turned to Nevada.
Chris Hopwood, who had more than 17 years of experience in Las Vegas, serves as sportsbook director. He’s been in high demand with other tribes as a resource to help with risk management.
Hopwood said he was hired in July 2018 and had less than two months to get the sportsbook ready.
“We pay attention to the industry lines across the country, but we have to do things our own way, because of all the SEC schools around us,” Hopwood said. “We can’t look at what Las Vegas is doing, because we have a lot of fans that come over from Alabama. When Alabama is on the road, our sportsbook is a hub for Alabama alumni.”
Hopwood said their books were conservative and limited NFL wagers to $3,000 when they first opened. But they’ve slowly progressed upward.
“Since we’ve been open, more than two-and-a-half-million bets have been placed through kiosks, retail counters, and the mobile app and we’ve taken in more than a hundred million in bets,” Hopwood. “When I got there, everyone thought this would be an amenity for the resort. They didn’t realize how big sports betting was.”
