Deryk Engelland placed the first bet at the grand opening of Caesars Race & Sportsbook at The Resort at Summerlin.
The former Golden Knights defenseman and Original Misfit, who isn’t allowed to bet on the NHL in his role as special assistant to team owner Bill Foley, wagered $40 on the Raiders to go over 5½ wins next season at Tuesday morning’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“You want to keep it local,” Engelland said in the space formerly known as the Rampart Casino. “Not being able to bet on hockey makes it easy to go with the Raiders over.
“They were supposed to be a .500 team last year. Bringing in a new coach, they’re going to want to get out of the gates early. I think it’s a good bet.”
Executives from Caesars and The Resort at Summerlin think their new partnership is a good bet for the first Caesars Sportsbook location to open in Summerlin.
“The Caesars brand being in Summerlin, from a sportsbook perspective, is going to be additive to both parties,” said Eric Hession, president of Caesars Digital. “We know that the customers that we have up in Summerlin that are affiliated with us on the Strip don’t always want to come down to the Strip to make wagers or make a deposit. They’ll be able to come here now because it’s so convenient.
“They’ve done a fabulous job with the property and put a ton of capital in, so we felt it would really fit with our brand and there will be a very good synergy.”
Hession said that Caesars made a sizable investment of more than six figures in the renovated 6,000-square-foot sportsbook, which features a new odds board and video wall and will add a 360-degree LED wraparound video screen at the expanded sportsbook bar before football season.
There is also new furniture in the book and 20 new sports betting kiosks in the casino.
“We’ve been working on all of our different amenities and looking at different gaming amenities,” said Michelle McHugh, vice president and general manager of The Resort at Summerlin. “We went out for proposals and we were blown away from what Caesars put forward for us, what they’re adding for technology investments in our race and sportsbook and what they can bring for different betting options.
“We thought it was a really good option for our customers and Summerlin residents to have a a different option for their sports betting.”
For the first time, bettors can now complete in-person registration for the Caesars Sportsbook mobile app at a Summerlin location. New users will get $350 in bonus bets, through daily $50 bet matches, when they register for the Caesars app at The Resort at Summerlin.
“We’ve had discussions with books in the past to change branding or launch with a different brand and they’ve chosen the William Hill brand (owned by Caesars), which is great,” Hession said. “Rampart felt when they rebranded to The Resort at Summerlin that switching to the Caesars brand was the way to go.
“Is this going to be the last? I’m quite confident it won’t be. … We’re invested in the local market and we see the value associated with these local customers.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
