DraftKings Casino was the first online casino to come online in West Virginia, doing so on July 15, 2020.
Four years later, DraftKings Casino could be the first to do something else in the Mountain State: launch peer-to-peer online poker.
Such a move is just one of many surprising scenarios to emerge from the news last week that DraftKings launched an online poker game called Electric Poker in Michigan. Players from the Great Lakes State will find Electric Poker in the lobby of the DraftKings Casino.
Electric Poker represents a novel approach for the igaming industry. The inclusion of a single peer-to-peer poker game (that is quick to play and has the allure of winning a big jackpot) alongside online casino and sports betting products could prove to be hugely successful. It’s a three-handed lottery style sit-and-go game with four buy-in levels ($1, $5, $10, and $25) that generates a random prize once the entire table is set. Games move quickly, with blinds increasing every two minutes and a forced all-in (aka Electric Mode) kicking in after as little as six minutes.
At a minimum, the move is geared toward ensuring that there are plenty of igaming options available to players already active with DraftKings.
The Boston-based igaming company suggested it could launch Electric Poker in additional states but did not offer a timeline. It launched the game in Michigan in part because it’s one of the largest igaming markets in the US.
The fact that the operator only launched the game in one state is telling — it wants to see how well it fares in a large test market before rolling it out elsewhere.
We expect that Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which are also both large markets, will likely be the next places where DraftKings introduces Electric Poker. DraftKings Poker could also surface in Ontario — it runs DraftKings Casino Ontario and its famous sportsbook in the province.
There are four more US states with legal online casino gaming, but DraftKings doesn’t have access to either Delaware or Rhode Island because they are igaming monopolies held by Rush Street Interactive (RSI) and Bally’s, respectively.
That leaves just Connecticut and West Virginia as the last two states where Electric Poker could launch.
At first blush, a launch in Connecticut appears the more likely of the two, for the simple reason that Connecticut has twice as many residents as West Virginia.
But population alone doesn’t tell the whole story, and we believe West Virginia has the inside track on getting Electric Poker before Connecticut does. Here are three reasons why:
West Virginia Has Shared Liquidity
One thing that makes Electric Poker special is that it needs a lower level of liquidity than other forms of poker, meaning the small population of the state is not a barrier to entry.
That said, a larger player pool would still be beneficial to West Virginia online poker players as well as those in the other states sharing liquidity, ass it would allow games to run more frequently without long wait times.
West Virginia has shared liquidity because it is a signatory of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), a multi-state gaming compact that supports online poker by allowing operators in its members state to combine their player pools, creating shared liquidity.
MSIGA includes West Virginia and also Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, and New Jersey. The combined population for all five states is 25.3 million. By comparison, Connecticut has 3.6 million residents and shared liquidity is against state law.
Connecticut’s Tribal Casinos Don’t Seem Interested in Poker
When the two tribal casinos in Connecticut were authorized to launch igaming in the state through a partner operator, both picked operators that (at the time) didn’t offer peer-to-peer poker. Foxwoods Resorts Casino picked DraftKings, while the Mohegan Sun Casino agreed to partner with FanDuel.
The selections signaled that offering real money online poker was not a priority for either casino.
Had either Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun been interested in offering poker, they would have sought partnership with the likes of BetMGM or Caesars. Instead, the casinos focuses on sports betting — a vertical where DraftKings and FanDuel are the two top brands.
Since there are only two Connecticut online casino operators and no more can be added, DraftKings Poker could sew up the state’s entire real money online poker market. Without more competition, DraftKings can take its time launching in Connecticut.
WV is Where DraftKings Can Build Its Brand
Real money online poker is legal in West Virginia, but there are no operators offering it — largely because the state is a small market, with just 1.8 million residents.
While there are no real money online poker operators currently active in the state, that’s expected to change at some point. Mobile sports betting launched in West Virginia in August 2019, followed by online sports betting in July 2020 — there are currently nine igaming platforms in the Mountain State.
DraftKings Casino WV, which operates under the land-based casino license for Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, could dominate the entire regulated market for real money online poker.
The earlier that DraftKings launches Electric Poker, the more time it will have in building its brand compared to rivals BetMGM Poker, PokerStars, and WSOP — all of which have so far declined to launch in the Mountain State.
