Betway set to become Pennsylvania's 13th online sportsbook

Betway entered the Pennsylvania online casino and sports betting market with a three-day, real-money test launch that started Monday under Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board monitoring, in partnership with Live! Casino Hotel Philadelphia.

The soft launch operating times for pa.betway.com run Monday from 1 pm to 9 pm ET, Tuesday from 11 am to 9 pm, and Wednesday from 9 am to 9 pm. Betway would receive approval for permanent operations to start Thursday.

The sportsbook operator received its licensing approval from the state regulator on May 19, although it had been unclear since then when it would start operations and which established casino partner it would use. In Pennsylvania, both online sportsbooks and iCasinos must be tethered to one of the state’s casino operators.

Gaming board spokesman Doug Harbach said Betway gained access through an agreement with the Live! Philadelphia casino, owned by Cordish Gaming Group, PennBets reports. Live! also has its own online casino and an agreement with FanDuel to operate the retail sportsbooks at its Philadelphia and Westmoreland County locations.

Betway is part of Digital Gaming Corp. USA, based in New Jersey, as the U.S. version of a brand whose roots in Europe go back to 2006. The operator has previously launched in Colorado and Indiana, and it plans to open later in additional states. It has built various marketing relationships in recent months with U.S. sports entities, most notably the NHL.

With a desktop and mobile gambling offering in the state, and a shared platform for sports and casino, Betway brings the number of online sportsbooks in Pennsylvania to 13 and grows the amount of iCasino sites to 17. On Monday afternoon, the Betway casino showed 132 slots game options along with multiple versions of blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, three-card stud, and video poker.

Its welcome offer for new customers using casino games consisted of a 100% deposit match up to $1,000, but with a hefty 30X play-through requirement to claim the matching funds as the customer’s own. The sportsbook’s primary promotion consisted of an initial risk-free bet of up to $250. If the customer’s first bet loses, their account is provided funds to make a second bet of an equivalent amount.