William Hill has doubled its presence in Atlantic City, by rebranding the retail sportsbooks at Harrah’s and Bally’s. The move is part of the Caesars/Eldorado merger. Caesars retains ownership of the Wild Wild West night club at Bally’s, where the new William Hill sportsbook is located.
William Hill US CEO, Joe Asher, said of the sportsbook’s Atlantic City expansion, “It’s just one more exciting day for William Hill as we open more sportsbook locations at Caesars properties across the country. Recently, we opened William Hill Sportsbooks in Atlantic City at The Wild Wild West and Harrah’s Resort. We’re counting down the minutes until the NFL football season kicks off and we look forward to welcoming New Jersey sports fans to our new locations.”
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The Deal Includes Both Retail and Online Sports Betting
William Hill sportsbooks are sprouting up all over the country as a result of the 2019 agreement to run the sportsbooks at Eldorado Resort properties. Now that the Eldorado merger with Caesars Entertainment is complete, that agreement transferred to the two Atlantic City properties.
The change also took place at former Eldorado casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as other jurisdictions.
The change to William Hill also applies to the Caesars’ sportsbook app.
Asher said that his company will create a new sports betting app for Caesars and that the new app will be named Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill. Furthermore, the new app will be built using William Hill’s platform and technology. Also, the new app will integrate Caesars Rewards, so current users will not lose any of their reward points.
Moreover, the new Caesars sports betting app will be different from the William Hill app currently operating in New Jersey under the Tropicana, Monmouth Park, and Ocean Casino licenses.
William Hill Pulls Ahead in New Jersey
With the transition to William Hill at the Wild Wild West and Harrah’s sportsbooks, the UK-based sports betting company now controls half of the casino sportsbooks in Atlantic City. Other Atlantic City William Hill locations include Ocean Casino and the Tropicana. William Hill also operates the sportsbook at Monmouth Park Racetrack.
William Hill played a pivotal role in launching sports betting in the Garden State, and now plays an even more dominant role.
The Sportsbooks at Harrah’s and Wild, Wild West are Open
The transition to William Hill at Caesars’ properties came right in the middle of the COVID-19 shutdowns. Currently, New Jersey retail sportsbooks are only allowed to operate at 25% capacity.
To cope with current restrictions, many of the Atlantic City’s sportsbooks are making adjustments to their operating hours and seating arrangements for the first week of the NFL betting season.
At this time, the new sportsbooks at the Wild Wild West and Harrah’s have the following hours:
- Monday – Thursday: 10 a.m. – 12 a.m.
- Friday: 10 a.m. – 1 a.m.
- Saturday: 9 a.m. – 1 a.m.
- Sunday: 9 a.m. – 12 a.m.
Both sportsbooks also have the following health and safety rules in place:
- Customers must maintain six feet of social distancing.
- Standing at the bar is not allowed. Only seated patrons will be served.
- Food and drinks are not permitted in the sportsbooks.
- Patrons must only eat and drink at a restaurant, bar, or hotel room.
Normally, there are 160 seats available at the Wild, Wild, West, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, that’s been reduced to only 40. Sports bettors should also contact the sportsbooks in person for information on reserving a seat.
The sportsbook at Wild Wild West has more than 15,228 square feet of space, including five private Fan Caves by reservation, as well as plenty of televisions and games in the common rooms. Fan Caves normally can hold 16 to 24 people, however, with the social distancing measures, it’s unclear how that will be enforced. Fan Caves also include Xbox gaming consoles and normally have food and table service provided by Guy Fieri’s Guy’s Bar-B-Que Joint. Once again, with COVID-19 protocols in place, it’s unclear if table service and food are currently available.
