Westgate Resorts and Paragon Gaming are looking to be a major force in the sports gambling industry in the US. The two connected entities announced yesterday that they will be launching Westgate’s SuperBook concept to all gaming markets where sports gambling has already been legalized. Paragon, which is based out of Las Vegas, operates the Westgate Las Vegas for Orlando, Florida-based Westgate Resorts.
The SuperBook will be a separate joint venture that will act as a sports betting operators for racetracks and casinos. According to Paragon CEO Rob Oseland, “In a way, we’re decoupling the SuperBook brand from the Westgate so it can stand on its own in other markets and compete for market share.”
Westgate SuperBook’s executive VP of race and sportsbook operations, Jay Kornegay, looks at this as an opportunity to provide a solution that can operate, manage and assume all the risks for new sportsbook operations. He calls it “the natural next step in the evolution of our industry.”
The SuperBook at Westgate first launched in 1986. The resort was then known as the Las Vegas Hilton and the new 30,000-square-foot sportsbook cost $17 million to build. Today, it is the largest sports gambling operation in Nevada, and is accompanied by a mobile-based sports gambling application.
Paragon and Westgate joined forces in 2015. Since then, Westgate Las Vegas has seen capital improvements of almost $200 million, including a renovation of the sportsbook. It now offers over 350 seats and the largest video wall in the US, measuring 220 feet by 20 feet.
The Westgate SuperBook has a solid place in the history of Las Vegas. When it was first introduced, it was touted as the most advanced facility and, for the first time, integrated Internet technology that completely altered how betting odds were distributed.
A year after the sportsbook opened, it was described by the Los Angeles Times as being the place where gamblers could watch “as many as a dozen live games and five races simultaneously from throughout the country” while relaxing in “stuffed chairs, sipping free drinks and reading complimentary copies of the Racing Form, which the Hilton flies in specially every night from the East. Fourteen TV dishes on the casino’s roof scan the skies.”
According to David Siegel, CEO of Westgate, “We are excited to know that our investment in the SuperBook has been extremely successful and (that) this venture is now prepared to expand nationwide.”
