Tennessee is an exciting market to continue our growth after the immense success earlier this year in Arkansas.
Five months after launching Betly Sportsbook in Arkansas, Southland Casino Hotel announced it has launched a similar sportsbook in neighboring Tennessee.
Southland — a property located in West Memphis, AR, a short drive across the Mississippi River from Memphis, TN — launched Betly Sportsbook in Tennessee on August 15, making it the 13th licensed sportsbook in TN.
“We are thrilled to make the Betly online and mobile sportsbook available to our many loyal patrons in Tennessee,” said Jeff Strang, Southland’s senior Director of Marketing. “Now they can experience the excitement of wagering on their favorite teams and sports betting in general from the convenience of their homes and anywhere in the state.”
Although 13 online sportsbooks are licensed in the Volunteer State, only 10 are currently live.
Launch to Serve “Large Patron Base” in TN
Southland is owned by Delaware North, a global hospitality company based in Buffalo, NY.
The facility features a casino and a greyhound racetrack. Delaware North opened an expanded casino at Southland in May and is expected to open a 20-story hotel tower there this fall. Both are part of a $320 million expansion project that began in 2019.
The casino launched retail and online sportsbooks under the Betly brand for players in Arkansas in early March.
The Betly platform is powered by Gamewise, a joint venture (JV) between Delaware North and GAMING1, an online casino and sports betting operator based in Belgium. Delaware North and GAMING1 formed the JV in July 2021.
In a statement, Southland explained it launched Betly in Tennessee because it “has a large patron base of Tennessee residents.”
Victor Araneda, chief business development officer for GAMING1, concurred. “Tennessee is an exciting market to continue our growth after the immense success earlier this year in Arkansas,” he said.
“We’re proud to see our technology performing so well in the US and look forward to continually improving our [sports betting app]'s functionality. We strongly believe in the value our omnichannel partnership with Delaware North will provide Tennessee bettors.”
Betly Joins a Crowded Field
Online sports betting went live in Tennessee on November 1, 2020. There are no retail sportsbooks in the state. When the market opened, it featured four operators — BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Action 24/7, a startup based in Nashville.
Four additional sportsbooks — Barstool, Caesars, TwinSpires, and WynnBET — launched in 2021, although Caesars originally entered the Volunteer State as William Hill and rebranded that August. TwinSpires exited the Tennessee market on April 30 of this year.
So far in 2022, Tennessee has welcomed SuperBook and Wagr to its stable of online sportsbooks. Three other books — Bally Bet, Fubo, and Hard Rock — have been approved by the Tennessee Sports Wagering Advisory Council (SWAC) but have not yet been launched.
- Big risk-free play offer
- Variety of popular slots
- Solid banking options
TN is Third US State for Betly
Tennessee is the third US state for Betly. The brand is live in Arkansas, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Betly launched online sportsbooks with two casinos in West Virginia — Mardi Gras and Wheeling Island, in September 2020. Delaware North owns and operates both casinos.
Delaware North also owns 50% of Miami Valley Gaming, a racino in Ohio. Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) owns the other 50% of the facility. The owners have reportedly applied for a sports betting license in Ohio, which plans to launch sports betting at midnight on January 1, 2023.
