With FanDuel, all 9 Atlantic City casinos have sports books

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. » FanDuel, whose northern New Jersey outlet has about half of New Jersey’s rapidly growing sports betting market, has opened its first retail betting space in Atlantic City.

The company, which started as a daily fantasy sports provider but has quickly found success as a real-money bookmaker, opened a temporary sports book Tuesday inside Bally’s casino on the Boardwalk.

With that move, all nine of Atlantic City’s casinos now offer retail sports betting.

“It is the first of many planned capital improvement projects at Bally’s Atlantic City and a testament to our commitment to reinvest in our physical property portfolio,” said George Papanier, president and CEO of Bally’s Corp.

FanDuel operates the sports book at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, just outside New York City. It has been the most successful sports book in the state, taking in $173.3 million of the $332.1 million that New Jersey sports books have made during the first 11 months of this year.

The temporary space opened Tuesday at Bally’s includes six live odds boards, 10 self-service betting kiosks, and three live betting windows.

Design and construction are currently underway on a permanent FanDuel Sportsbook, which Bally’s expects to open in the spring. It will include 34 self-service betting kiosks, and five live wagering windows, along with an 80-seat lounge.

Bally’s previously had Atlantic City’s largest physical sports book in its Wild Wild West area. But when Caesars Entertainment sold the casino to a Rhode Island company that would later change its corporate name to Bally’s, that sports book became part of Caesars casino and was not included in the sale.

That left Bally’s without a physical sports book, until Tuesday’s opening.