It took several years of planning and multiple appearances before gaming regulators across the country, but BetMGM, the sports betting arm of MGM Resorts International, will unveil a feature on Wednesday that no other sports betting app in Nevada offers.

Starting Wednesday, BetMGM customers will be able to place bets seamlessly from a digital wallet in every state where MGM has a presence.

This means that players registered in Nevada can enter Arizona and bet from their account once they register there. And those who register in Arizona can bet in Nevada after registering – in person, under Nevada rules.

Matt Prevost, chief financial officer of BetMGM, said no other digital betting app has this feature.

New York-based Prevost expects competing companies – such as Caesars Entertainment with William Hill, Circa and Boyd Gaming – will try to copy MGM’s system.

“This will allow our customers who are traveling from out of state to easily use their wallet while they are in Vegas,” Prevost said in an exclusive interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Of course, they will have to sign up on-site and register in Nevada as they always do. But for them as customers, it will be a cohesive experience. We have been working on this for years. And, touch wood, we have received regulatory approval and the technical implementation will be done this week.”

BetMGM’s nine Las Vegas sportsbooks are located at the Bellagio, Aria, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, MGM Grand, Park MGM, Mandalay Bay, New York-New York, Luxor and Excalibur, where customers must complete their registration after downloading the free app via Google Play for Android phones or the Apple Store.

Applicable in 29 markets

MGM offers digital sports betting in 29 North American markets, including Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, Ontario, Canada and the Territory of Puerto Rico.

In 2022, MGM offered the first betting counters in sports stadiums, with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale and Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington DC.

BetMGM, which was formed from a partnership between MGM and U.K.-based Entain Plc., launched a redesigned mobile sports betting app in Nevada in February that offers a greater variety of Angstrom-enabled prop and parlay offerings, as well as digital deposits and withdrawals. Eilers & Krejcik, a research and consulting firm focused on the iGaming and sports betting industries, praised the app as “clearly the best product in Nevada right now.” In addition, several new product enhancements to the digital sports betting offering will enhance the BetMGM experience in time for the NFL football season.

Prevost said it was unclear how much the technological change would affect MGM’s financial position, but he was confident customers would respond positively to this first-to-market feature.

“I think it could actually be beneficial to the state of Nevada in terms of increased revenue and increased taxes,” Prevost said.

New customers in Nevada can download the BetMGM app and receive a first bet offer of up to $250 paid back in bonus bets. This offer is only available in Nevada. Bonus bets cannot be withdrawn and expire after seven days. Existing users can check the promotions tab in their app for incentives such as parlay boost tokens, odds boosts and other available offers. Players can also earn BetMGM Rewards Points and Tier Credits by playing at BetMGM Sportsbook. BetMGM Rewards Points can be redeemed for digital bonuses and MGM Rewards Points.

“We completed the rollout of this unified wallet in all other jurisdictions outside of Nevada last summer,” he said. “So this time last year, we had to go to each individual regulator and get this approved, and for various technical and regulatory reasons, we saved Nevada for last.”

Contact Richard N. Velotta at [email protected] or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.