MILWAUKEE — For the first time, NFL fans in the Milwaukee area can make wagers on a game.
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Sports betting was made legal at Potawatomi Casino and Hotel in March of this year. Through the first five months, it’s been successful.
“It’s been super steady,” Domnic Ortiz, CEO and GM of Potawatomi Hotel and Casino said. “We’re just going to try and keep up.”
Ortiz says the sportsbook is arguably one of the top retail sportsbooks in the country. With the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Detroit Lions Thursday Night, it will kick off an even busier season for sports bettors. According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), 73.5 million Americans expect to make a bet on the NFL this season. That includes 13.6 million who plan to make a bet at a physical sportsbook, like Potawatomi.
“Football is going to be times 10,” Justin Arnett, Director of the Potawatomi Sportsbook said. “People love it.”
The Sportsbook boasts over 70 kiosks where bettors can wager on thousands of different NFL options from spreads, straight bets, totals, and a litany of prop bets. Arnett showed TMJ4 how Thursday Night’s game between the Chiefs and Lions had over 400 prop bet options, including over/unders for total tackles for individual players. During last year’s NFL season, if people in the Milwaukee area wanted to make a legal wager, they’d have to drive to Illinois. Now, a quick jaunt over to Canal Street to drop some Badger bucks that will stay in Wisconsin.
“Keep those dollars in state,” Arnett said. “Why send it across the border?”
AGA data shows sports betting brought $3.1 billion in economic impact to the State of Wisconsin, including $446.4 million in annual tax impact & tribal revenue share payments to governments. That data doesn’t take into account Potawatomi’s impact with a full season of NFL betting.
“This is the first step to the future,” Bucks President, Peter Feigin said. “You’ve seen some neighboring states in Michigan and Illinois create sportsbooks and more mobile betting, having accessibility around the state. Directionally, that’s where this is going. Potawatomi has done this in a really great incredible way with scale and scope and set a foundation.”
While basketball season doesn’t start for over a month, Feigin says sports betting kicking off for the NFL season in Milwaukee is a sign of things to come to elevate professional sports in the state.
“The way trends are going, the engagement of fans, whether it’s on two screens watching a game, at a game, or sports betting, this is what’s happening,” Feigin said. “Our fans are absorbing the sport through betting, 5 to 10 second short form videos to get it. It’s literally the customization of how people want to absorb the games. Gambling is one of the biggest segments.”
“We’re going to be ground zero for sports fans,” Arnett said. “It’s going to be packed, the energy will be palpable. Especially when the Packers are playing. Everyone will be there and it will be on par with what you get in Vegas. In fact, we’ll be better than a lot of sportsbooks in Vegas. We’ll be in the upper echelon of things. We’re really doing things right.”
The fun is only starting. By late spring, 2024, Potawatomi says it will have its entire Sportsbook finished, including the largest LED wall in the entire Midwest and a ton of other televisions.
“In the mock-ups, the 85 inch TVs look tiny,” Arnett said. “It’s great and going to be a lot of fun.”
More information on how to bet on sports at Potawatomi can be found on its website.
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