A sportsbook situated at Louisville, BetAmerica, will soon go by another name after rebranding. The sportsbook owner, Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), has announced its interest to rename the casino to a more familiar name. The BetAmerica sportsbook will soon be recognized under the TwinSpires brand and first launch in Michigan at the end of this month. TwinSpires will associate with CDI, an online horse racing betting platform, and offer iGaming and sports gambling as stated in an agreement between Churchill Downs and Hannahville Tribe.
The transition from BetAmerica to TwinSpires will happen in all states where Churchill Downs has sportsbooks and online casino platforms at the end of June. This had been the firm’s goal for a while now, as company executives have talked about it for the past few months. Churchill Downs’s president, Ian Williams, said that the company has been pursuing one strategy where they combine their products, including the iGaming sector, horse wagering betting platform, and sports wagering into one platform.
Although the sportsbook will have all forms of betting, each state will stick to the form of betting already legal in its jurisdiction. For example, Kentucky will only use TwinSpires to bet on horse races events, while Indiana customers will only wager on sports. Ultimately, bettors will have a different wallet for each betting product, whether it’s sports, races, or iGaming, despite accessing TwinSpires from one URL.
Churchill Downs Takes Advantage of a Recognized Brand
BetAmerica is a huge sportsbook but not as big as TwinSpires. According to the Oregon Racing Commission, TwinSpires has a bigger user base than BetAmerica. In 2019, TwinSpires earned almost $1.9 billion in revenue generated from race bets, while BetAmerica struggled to attract users from various states. Generally, BetAmerica has fewer bet handles from multiple states, while TwinSpires takes the lead. This makes the move to align Churchill Downs’ products with TwinSpires, which is more recognized to help increase the firm’s earnings.
CDI is hoping that its customers will similarly transfer to TwinSpires as FanDuel and DraftKings fans did. However, Bill Carstanjen, Churchill Downs’s CEO, is not worried about the transition as the company already has an established online presence in many states. Bill also said that the company is recognized among many consumers, giving it an added advantage.
Just in Time
The BetAmerica renaming is the second significant piece of progress Churchill Downs has made of late. Six months earlier, the firm announced its interest in switching from SBTech to GAN Limited and Kambi Group PLC. The decision followed after SBTech suffered a cyber-attack that led BetAmerica to go offline for three weeks during the spring of 2020.
According to a release on Tuesday, TwinSpires will use the newly acquired technology platform, GAN and Kambi Group PLC, to offer iGaming and sports wagering services and retain its customized technology system to provide pari-mutuel horse racing bets.
According to COO Bill Mudd, Churchill Downs Inc. President, the company is determined to provide sports wagering and iGaming platforms to its users in an integrated form while remaining profitable. The COO added that the transition from BetAmerica to TwinSpires would create better marketing efficiencies and allow the company to offer a better wagering experience to the growing online customer base.
