After a two-month hiatus, the Bally Bet online sports wagering app is back in Colorado.
The sportsbook shut down operations in the state in late June to transition to new technology partners. It partnered with sports betting platform provider Kambi and payment processor White Hat Gaming to overhaul its app.
Kambi executive Gerard Starkey posted an update on Bally Bet’s status via X on Sept. 8.
“Bally’s now up and running online in four US states following its launch in Colorado today (+AZ, OH, VA), hot on the heels of Churchill Downs’ day one Kentucky launches across 7 (seven) properties yesterday. #kambi”
Customers will have to sign up for a new Bally Bet account
Since sports betting launched in Colorado in May 2020, the number of mobile operators has fluctuated. The state had a high of 26 mobile operators in 2022. Now, with Bally Bet’s return to the Colorado online sports betting market, there are 21 companies operating in the state.
WynnBet recently shut down its sports betting operations in the state. Other operators that have exited this year include Elite Sportsbook Colorado, Maverick Sportsbook, Sky Ute Sportsbook and PlayUp.
When Bally Bet went offline mid-summer, the company didn’t announce a specific timeframe for resuming operations other than a “few months.” The operator stopped accepting bets on June 22. Customers were advised to withdraw their money by June 30.
At the time, the Bally Bet Sportsbook was still available in several states via a proprietary platform. The shutdown didn’t affect Bally Bet’s online operations in Arizona, but customers in Indiana, Iowa, New York and Virginia were in the same boat as those in Colorado.
With the re-launch, customers will have to sign up again for Bally Bet accounts. For Coloradoans, the relaunch came just in time for the start of the NFL regular season. As Starkey noted, the app is also now available again in other states.
Bally Bet takes a big risk going dark for two months
While moving to a better platform should provide a better experience for customers, it was a risk for Bally Bet to take, with users missing two months of online wagering. And now players must go through the tedium of signing up again in a new app.
Bally’s entered the mobile sports betting market in Colorado in 2021. The operator spent $3 billion to develop its previous platform only to chuck it for Kambi’s technology. Other missteps, which led to Bally’s writing off nearly $400 million in costs during the last quarter of 2022, resulted in the resignation of CEO Lee Fenton in February.
Current Bally’s Interactive president Robeson Reeves called the company’s 2022 results “unacceptable.”
With its new third-party providers, the Bally Bet app will offer full integration with the Bally’s rewards programs that include perks redeemable at the company’s casinos and resort properties. Bally’s footprint in the state also extends to its Black Hawk casino. However, the retail sportsbook at Black Hawk is under the DraftKings brand.
