William Hill Is Live: What Illinois Sports Bettors Need To Know About It

Written By Joe Boozell on September 24, 2020Last Updated on February 4, 2022

Last week, William Hill Sportsbook was launched as the fifth mobile sportsbook in Illinois.

William Hill and other sportsbooks are grateful to Governor JB Pritzker for extending the remote registration period until at least October 17. This extension gave William Hill over four days to register customers for sports betting in Illinois.

You can find more details about William Hill Sportsbook and its place in the Illinois gaming landscape here.

William Hill offers a$ 300 bonus wager.

William Hill is allowing new users in Illinois to place a bonus bet of $300. However, there was some confusion concerning its initial advertising.

In its initial press release, William Hill declared it would offer a 100% match up to $300. However, the next morning, it changed its plan and opted to offer a prize wager instead.

As a result, William Hill received some backlash on Twitter.

BetRivers Sportsbook, a competitor, provides a 100% match up to $500. Meanwhile, DraftKings, FanDuel, and PointsBet have introduced versions of no-brainer bets, which equates to free money for their users.

Furthermore, William Hill is the only casino that mandates the presentation of an ID passport or driver’s license during registration, leading to some registration complications.

For example, you will be unable to record if your target surpasses a particular personality control limit. A representative from William Hill stated that their team is working on enhancing the control over the target character.

Four other online sportsbooks, including Illinois & rsquo, require a Social Security number at registration but do not ask for an ID card, driver’s license, or any other form of identification.

In any case, William Hill might be successful in Illinois.

The industry in Illinois has not yet achieved saturation. We acknowledge that sports gambling is incredibly popular in the Land of Lincoln.

As of last year, 230,000 sports gambling records were opened in Illinois.

Considering that Illinois smart enrollment has only been accessible for two months, and BetRivers was the only option for one of those months, it’s also important to consider the limited number of sports available for betting.

The first revenue report for sports betting in Illinois was also promising.

The state earned $51.4 million in July with only one cellular betting and without NBA, NHL, NFL, or college basketball.

Fast forward to September. The state operates five online casinos and a complete monthly sports schedule.

What’s the location? All five online casinos in Illinois should be able to succeed to varying degrees.

Illinois is likely to release ostentatious control numbers in September and October. The competition is not intense, with Colorado having 15 online casinos and neighboring Indiana having nine.

Side note: The next entrant into the online market will indeed be intriguing to observe, given the absence of any clear contenders. However, Unibet Sportsbook, following its market access agreement with Argosy Casino Alton, appears to be the most probable.

Since August, the retail area has been operational.

The William Hill & rsquo’s retail sportsbook is located in the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin. It opened in early August.

The importance of retail location sign-ups decreases as more time is allocated to recording clients online. Elgin, located about an hour away from Chicago, is the seventh-largest city in Illinois, making it a prime location.

PointsBet and BetRivers have retail locations near Chicago, whereas DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook opted to collaborate with operators in the downstate area.

Picture by Julio Cortez of AP Photo
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Boozell, Joe

Since 2015, Joe Boozell has been a college sports writer for NCAA.com. His work has also been featured on Bleacher Report, FoxSports.com and NBA.com. Boozell, growing up, had the opportunity to compete against Anthony Davis and Frank Kaminsky in the basketball scene of Chicagoland… one can only imagine the outcome.

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