DraftKings Launches Mobile Sports Betting in Iowa, App Now Live in Six States

Another sportsbook is going online in Iowa. On Wednesday, DraftKings announced it has launched its mobile sports betting application in the state.

The DraftKings sportsbooks at the three Wild Rose casinos in Iowa are now taking registrations for its online sports betting application after the company announced it launched the mobile product on Wednesday. (Image: Chris Williams/KXNO)

The sports technology and entertainment company has operated retail sportsbooks at the three Wild Rose Casino resorts in Iowa since last fall, just months after the state’s legislature legalized sports betting.

DraftKings has seen steady fan engagement in Iowa during the last few months at our three Wild Rose sportsbooks across the state, and we couldn’t be more excited to provide customers with our state-of-the-art, mobile sports betting platform,” said Matt Kalish, the president of DraftKings North America and a company co-founder. “We have worked diligently to perfect our sportsbook product since it launched in 2018, and starting today, we’re proud to offer Iowans a safe and responsible place to wager on sports – one that can be accessed conveniently from the palm of their hands.”

DraftKings will be the fifth to go online in Iowa. William Hill, PointsBet, Hard Rock, and Elite Sportsbook have already launched. Caesars and FanDuel, which run two retail sportsbooks each, have yet to launch mobile in the state yet.

Deluged with Requests for Online

Iowa becomes the sixth state where DraftKings operates mobile sports betting, joining New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, and New Hampshire.

Unlike other states where DraftKings has already rolled out online applications, Iowa currently requires any adult 21 or older wanting to bet online to first in person at a participating casino. That requirement goes away at the end of the year.

With the Wild Rose’s three locations, DraftKings may be able to attract customers from various parts of the state, and perhaps residents from neighboring states as well.

Since we opened the sportsbooks, we have been deluged with requests for this app,” Wild Rose President and COO Tom Timmons said in a statement. “We are happy to offer it now, with the NCAA basketball tournament just around the corner.”

The Wild Rose Casino and Resort in Clinton in the eastern part of the state sits close to the Mississippi River, next to Illinois. It’s also about 25 miles from the Quad Cities metropolitan area and its nearly 400,000 residents.

Wild Rose’s Jefferson casino is located in central Iowa. It’s about 50 miles from Des Moines, Iowa’s largest city, and 95 miles from Omaha, Neb., the largest metropolitan market adjacent to the state.

In northern Iowa, the Wild Rose casino at Emmetsburg is about 25 miles from the Minnesota state line.

DraftKings Seeking Market Share Growth

The expansion into Iowa could help DraftKings supplant FanDuel as the most popular mobile sports betting application in the United States.’

According to the gaming research firm Eilers and Krejcik, DraftKings held approximately a 27 percent share of the online sports betting market in the fourth quarter of 2019. FanDuel currently serves as the market leader with a 39 percent market share amassed in four states.

However, since late December, DraftKings has added two new markets. Besides Iowa, it also launched its online application in New Hampshire, where DraftKings won the only sports betting contract with the Lottery in a competitive bid process.