First Tribal Casino Sportsbook In Michigan Launches At FireKeepers

• Dacey Sportsbook at FireKeepers Casino has become the first tribal casino in Michigan to provide a sports wagering option to guests.
• The sportsbook has had to deal with many COVID-19 setbacks including the recently announced college football cancellations.
• There is online sports wagering allowed and the sportsbook will be putting a focus on that for the safety of the guest and staff.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – Despite college football cancellations and projected decreased traffic, sports betting is live at the Dacey Sportsbook and Taphouse at the FireKeepers Casino.

On June 22, the casino became the first tribal casino to receive a license and begin to offer sports betting in Michigan.

The sportsbook has not been opened for more than three months but it has to deal with the effects of college and professional sports in an unprecedented state.

“The MLB, the NBA, and the NHL have generated quite a bit of interest for our sports wagering guests, so from that standpoint it’s been encouraging,” said Jim Wise, President of Marketing for FireKeepers. “When you package together the NFL with other sports, there’s certainly going to be a large menu of sports for bettors to pick from. We’re going to have the ability to go well into October whether we have college football or not.”

Michigan became the 19th state to sign legal sports betting into law after seeing how successful it was for other states around the US. Casinos in Detroit began offering sports wagering in early 2020 but operations were suspended for brick and mortar sportsbooks due to the pandemic closures.

Dacey Sportsbook dealt with setbacks of their own because of COVID-19 while trying to launch in-person sports betting at the tribal casino.

“It was actually a huge process to get the software installed and the staff training accomplished during the worst of the pandemic. Everything had to be done through Skype meetings,” said Wise. “We worked remotely throughout the time the casino was closed until we were able to open on-premises.”

Dacey Sportsbook began offering sports betting before major sports restarted, which brought in guests wanting to wager on golf tournaments, MMA, international soccer leagues and teams in the Korean Baseball League.

Currently, the online sportsbook is available and focus will be on the internet service for bettors that are not willing to visit the live casino at this time.

News tags: College Football | COVID-19 | Dacey Sportsbook | FireKeepers Casino | Jim Wise | Michigan