“Location, location, location” isn’t restricted to the real estate business.
PointsBet opened its third and last off-track betting retail sportsbook in Illinois this month at the Crazy Pour in Villa Park, approximately 20 miles west of downtown Chicago and roughly the same distance from Hawthorne Race Course, where the main sportsbook currently operates and a racino will eventually be built. Crazy Pour joins Hawthorne-tethered OTBs in Crestwood and Prospect Heights that have been retrofitted to add sports wagering capabilities, as allowed in the 2019 gaming expansion bill that legalized sports wagering in the state.
Illinois’ plethora of mobile sportsbooks recently made it the fourth state, along with New York, New Jersey, and Nevada, to surpass $1 billion in monthly handle in both October and November. Its retail game, meanwhile, has been solid since the first bets were placed in March 2020, days before the COVID-19 pandemic started — and that’s where Crazy Pour comes into play.
Through the first 11 months of 2022, with no pandemic-related restrictions on capacity, brick-and-mortar sportsbooks statewide have surpassed $350 million in handle and will be more than double the 2021 total when the Illinois Gaming Board releases figures for December. Combined in-person wagering at Hawthorne and its two OTB sites have totaled close to $23.1 million and generated nearly $1.8 million in revenue in 2022, putting expectations on Crazy Pour to make an immediate impact.
“I just knew that they already had that customer base — when they have a sporting event, they already have a crowd,” said Mike McFadden, PointsBet’s Senior Retail Operations Manager, who oversees the three OTBs. “They have people eager to come watch the Bears game, even when they’re 3-14 and have the first pick in the draft.”
Bracketing Rivers
Villa Park was not among the three locations Hawthorne considered for a retail sportsbook in its original plans, but that was also because Crazy Pour was an OTB tethered to Arlington Racetrack at the time. McFadden worked at Crazy Pour during that span, giving him extensive knowledge of the venue, ownership, and customer base.
After Churchill Downs Inc. opted to discontinue horse racing in Illinois and sell the iconic track to the Chicago Bears for $196.2 million, the Illinois Racing Board denied the Kentucky-based outfit a license to conduct off-track wagering at the Arlington site. That allowed Hawthorne to add to its stable of OTB sites and put Crazy Pour into consideration.
“It was [Hawthorne assistant general manager] John Walsh that introduced us to these guys and they do a tremendous, tremendous job,” Hawthorne CEO Tom Carey said about picking Crazy Pour. “[They] know how to run a business, and as soon as we sat down with them, it was evident that customer service was important to them. Managing so many OTBs, you can see the good and the bad in terms of who’s really into their businesses. And these guys are really into their business, which caused us to say it was a no-brainer.”
Crazy Pour fit the business footprint of what Hawthorne wanted to do on multiple levels. When comparing it to Crestwood and Prospect Heights, there is almost a Goldilocks-like feel to Crazy Pour in terms of both the size of the venue and how it mingles sports wagering and horse betting. While the retail book has its own distinct area, with eight self-serve kiosks and three windows, bettors can still use smartphones to both wager and set up their accounts to withdraw money.
“The biggest thing PointsBet offers all clients is that online cashout,” McFadden said. “You make a bet here, you win, you put it right on your account immediately. You make a bet on your account, you win, you can do a cash withdrawal, and within 10-15 minutes, get a code and get up to $10,000 in cash without having to go to your bank, wait for PayPal, anything like that.”
In terms of geography, the bracketing of Rivers Sportsbook — the largest brick-and-mortar venue in the state — was also achieved with Crazy Pour less than eight miles directly south of Oakbrook Terrace and 12 miles to the southwest of Rivers. Prospect Heights is less than 10 miles to the north of the casino, giving PointsBet two nearby locations to compete directly with the in-person wagering Goliath of Illinois, as well as the impending arrivals of FanDuel and DraftKings sportsbooks at the United Center and Wrigley Field, respectively.
“We have a ton of expectations,” McFadden said without mentioning Rivers by name. “Our main focus was around the biggest competitor in this area, strategically placing our four locations around there to try and capture some of the customers that normally go there. This is the last stepping stone for that, to gain Oakbrook, Villa Park, Addison, all those clients to get them to step in here, have a drink, have the good food and make a bet here instead of going to some of our competitors.”
Wagering worlds collide
We just want to thank everyone for supporting us in 2022! Let’s do it even bigger in 2023!! Happy New Year from everyone at Enzo’s, Crazy Pour and Parlay! @ The Crazy Pour Group https://t.co/IZNztrqtrp
— Enzo’s Pizza By Crazy Pour (@EnzosPizza_) January 2, 2023
While OTBs and sportsbooks can serve as a matchmaker of sorts to introduce each group to the other, getting them to the other’s respective betting windows remains a key challenge.
“It always seems that the customer base for sports is different than the customer base for horse racing within retail. A lot of those customers you thought were going to commingle still have that separation with the two,” McFadden noted. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it. … Getting both of them to play both, it’s rare to find that bigger player who likes to do both things.”
Commingling is central to Hawthorne’s plans for its racino, and McFadden is optimistic Crazy Pour can be one of the catalysts to achieve that goal.
“Everyone just work as one unit,” McFadden said about the biggest need for Crazy Pour to be successful. “The biggest thing, when we first started, [PointsBet CEO Johnny Aitken] said putting horse racing and sports betting together, this is the same type of thing, you’re just adding a bar atmosphere. You’re adding in three groups of people, and everyone working as a cohesive unit to make it better.”
In-story photos: Ryan Brandoff
