Within the Nevada gaming panorama, each different on line casino market is an afterthought when measured in opposition to Las Vegas. However, with the assistance of San Francisco 49ers followers from California’s Bay Space, Reno/Lake Tahoe benefited from the Tremendous Bowl in important trend.
A rendering of the Legends Bay On line casino close to Reno. The Circa sportsbook there topped earlier Tremendous Bowl deal with data. (Picture: Olympia Gaming)
Whereas Las Vegas was the middle of the soccer universe main as much as the large sport, some 49ers followers from Northern California opted in opposition to costly airfare and lodge rooms in Las Vegas, and opted to journey to Reno as an alternative, confirming the large sport was a giant deal for the “largest little metropolis on this planet.” As reported by Ken Belson of the New York Occasions, a slew of 49ers followers made the trek from the Bay Space to the Reno/Tahoe space to look at their crew tackle the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LVIII.
Reno is only a quarter of the scale of Las Vegas, although the previous is Nevada’s second-largest on line casino market after solely Sin Metropolis. At the least three elements helped Reno shine as an alternative choice to its “massive brother” to the south on Tremendous Bowl Sunday: the presence of the 49ers within the sport, affordability, and proximity.
Reno/Tahoe is a shorter flight or drive from the Bay Space than is Las Vegas. Moreover, although it’s arduous to quantify when it comes to Tremendous Bowl influence, the Reno/Tahoe area has, in recent times, drawn hundreds of residents from the Bay Space. It’s doable that a few of the 49ers followers who traveled to Reno for the large sport had co-workers, household, and buddies within the space.
Reno is attracting corporations, equivalent to Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, and Tesla, contributing to an unemployment price beneath 3%, far beneath Nevada and nationwide averages.
Reno Sportsbooks, Together with Circa, Posted Tremendous Bowl Data
Due largely to 38 states and Washington, DC providing some type of regulated sports activities betting, this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl smashed data when it comes to deal with. That pattern held true in Reno, too.
We had been fully offered out. Report deal with and a sea of Niner followers,” stated Jeffrey Benson, director of operations at Circa Sports activities, in an interview with On line casino.org.
Las Vegas-based Circa runs the sportsbook on the Legends Bay On line casino in Sparks. That venue, which is positioned at The Shops at Legends buying heart, opened in August 2022 and is among the latest on line casino inns out there. On the time it opened, the sportsbook at Legends Bay was Circa’s sixth in Nevada.
Different gaming corporations with Reno/Tahoe on line casino inns embrace Bally’s, Caesars Leisure, Century Casinos, and Tilman Fertitta’s Golden Nugget.
One other Tremendous Bowl Profit for Reno
Because the Occasions identified, Reno/Tahoe benefited on one other entrance. Most of the 49ers followers who made Tremendous Bowl journeys to the area did so as a result of they wished to wager on the large sport — one thing they will’t legally do in California.
Nevada gaming knowledge collectors don’t quantify how a lot deal with is attributable to bettors from California, however it’s cheap to imagine the proportion was elevated for the Tremendous Bowl. That supplied some cushion for sportsbook operators who had been punished by the overwhelming majority of bettors leaning into the Chiefs on the unfold and on the cash line.
As for when California approves sports activities wagering, the outlook is murky at greatest. The difficulty received’t make it onto this 12 months’s poll and, even when it’s accepted in 2026, it might be a number of years after that earlier than Tribal gaming entities approve cellular wagering.
