Consumers in West Virginia are to remain without mobile sports betting services for the foreseeable further after the state’s Lottery announced that it is to delay the launch of DraftKings’ sports betting app.
DraftKings and the lottery, which serves as the gambling regulator for the state, carried out testing of the app in late May with a view to rolling it out to consumers soon after. However, while testing of the system was successful, the physical location of the servers and compliance with the Federal Wire Act has led to the Lottery delaying the launch.
DraftKings is to launch mobile sports betting in the state via a partnership with Penn National Gaming and its Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races venue.
“Everyone involved wants to make sure we proceed the right way,” West Virginia Lottery director John Myers explained. “The construction of the network and the mobile app involves many parties and can affect the operations of other jurisdictions.
“The Lottery wants to see a successful launch as soon as possible, but we must make sure that the citizens of West Virginia and our employees are not put at risk. We are working closely with the parties involved, however it will take time to build the system.”
The West Virginia Lottery has not provided any indication as to when the app is likely to go live.
West Virginia consumers have not been able to bet via mobile since March 6, when Delaware North’s BetLucky app, operated through a joint venture with Miomni Gaming, went offline.
Originally blamed on a service interruption, this was later revealed to have stemmed from an infringement dispute between Miomni and rival supplier Enterg Software Solutions.
Delaware North terminated its contract with Miomni shortly after, with its online and land-based sportsbooks remaining closed. In April, the operator launched a lawsuit against Miomni.
However the supplier rejects any suggestion of wrongdoing, especially claims that it did not hold rights to use software that powered its sports betting platform. In the first step of efforts to prove this, it has secured a court order demanding Enterg informs the business of any ‘kill switch’ integrated into its platform. Enterg failed to comply by deadline by the deadline of June 3, set by Judge David Edwards last week.