The ball is tipped and there they aren't. Mobile sports betting apps in Arkansas, that is.
When the state Legislature's Joint Budget Committee approved the Arkansas Racing Commission's proposed rule allowing mobile sports betting Feb. 22, the NCAA Tournament was the clear target.
Although in-person betting at one of Arkansas' three casinos -- Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff and Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis -- has been legal since July 2019, March 4 marked the first day bettors could wager from anywhere in the state.
The only problem? The platforms on which to do so weren't yet live.
Southland's Betly online sportsbook launched a day later, but only on web browsers. When the first round of the NCAA Tournament began Thursday, neither Betly nor Saracen's BetSaracen app was available to consumers as both still need final legal approval from Apple and Android.
It's a process that's taken far longer than Carlton Saffa, Saracen's chief marketing officer, expected and hoped.
"Every time I get an inquiry about, 'Why isn't your app up?' I always sort of smile," Saffa told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Anybody that wants this app up wants it up about 1/100 as much as I do."
Saffa has a good reason. Millions of them, in fact.
Although last year's NCAA Tournament occurred amid a continuing pandemic and within a bubble at Indianapolis, $1.6 million was wagered at Saracen in March 2021. Saffa said Saracen expected to generate approximately $32 million in wagers this March with a fully functional and publicly available app.
Saffa also noted that the BetSaracen app -- the development of which began more than a year ago and is "one of the most significant" projects he's worked on -- is ready to be switched whenever Saracen receives final clearance from Gaming Laboratories International, a company that provides testing and certification services.
There's a similar but different problem a few hours north at Southland.
Delaware North, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based hospitality company that operates several casinos across the globe including Southland, entered into a joint venture with Belgian gaming and sports betting partner Gaming1 last July. Together, they developed Betly online sportsbook, which already has apps up and running for two of Delaware North's West Virginia casinos.
While bettors within Arkansas state lines are currently able to legally place bets through Betly by accessing the Southland website, it's not as facile as is the case with most mobile betting apps.
"The launch has been tremendously successful and well-received," said Luisa Woods, Delaware North's vice president of marketing for gaming and entertainment. "We are looking to [when the app is accepted]. ... It will obviously reduce friction for our customers, and we want to do everything we can to make the experience as easy as possible."
Oaklawn remains in the process of developing its own app, something it anticipates launching within the next quarter.
"We took a more conservative approach and waited for the Racing Commission and the legislature to give their approval before we started working with our vendor GAN in getting our mobile platform ready," General Manager Wayne Smith said in a statement. "Our mobile platform will mirror the same wagering menu Oaklawn offers its guests on-property which rivals any national brands menu out today."
Those national brands, such as DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, spoke out vociferously against the rule that requires the casinos to keep at least 51% of the revenue generated by mobile sports betting.
Typically, most major sportsbooks keep anywhere between 85% and 95% of the money wagered with the remainder going to the partner casinos.
While it remains possible that those companies will eventually enter the fray in Arkansas -- casinos are currently allowed two skins, meaning they can create their own app and also partner with an existing brand -- none have indicated they have any near-term plans.
For Saffa, that's just fine. He's confident that BetSaracen will be able to more than match the likes of bigger brand names.
"[The national operators] consistently said that Arkansas would lack a first-class product if they were not in the market," Saffa said of testimony in the legislature last month. "It really hacked me off to sit and hear guys from Boston and other places say Arkansas couldn't do something first-class.
"We just doubled down at that point in terms of building out first-class."
Neither Saracen nor Southland had a specific timeline for when they expect their apps will be available.
But Saffa is willing to wait, especially knowing what the launch will ultimately mean for his casino as well as others statewide.
"It is costing us money to not be live. I'm not happy that we're not," Saffa said. "But what I am happy about -- and in fact, I'm proud of it -- is that we're insistent on a quality product."