How many Missourians tried to gamble in Kansas on first day of legal sports betting?
Interest in sports betting on the first day it was legal in the state of Kansas was huge, according to numbers released Friday.
More than 522,000 geolocation checks were approved within the first eight hours of the launch of legalized sports betting in Kansas, according to GeoComply Solutions Inc., which supports all of the mobile sportsbooks in the state.
Meanwhile, more than 16,000 attempts by individuals located in Missouri were blocked, with about 60% of them located just across the border in Kansas City.
“It is actually quite impressive for a state the size of Kansas,” said John Pappas, a spokesperson for GeoComply Solutions.
While the data does not indicate how many wagers were actually placed, it is a strong indicator of people’s interest in wanting to place a bet, Pappas said.
Kansas now allows anyone 21 years old and older to gamble on sports. They, however, must be within the state’s geographic boundaries to place the wager.
A person’s location could be verified multiple times they are using the mobile sportsbooks apps. The closer a person is to the border, the more often that person’s location is verified, Pappas said.
When looking at unique devices using the apps during those first eight hours, Kansas was on par proportionally with Louisiana and exceed New York based on percentage of adult population, he said.
“I think that clearly there was a lot of pent up demand for legal betting options in the state,” Pappas said.
GeoComply Solutions, a leading provider of geolocation and cybersecurity services for the U.S. sports betting industry, uses technology designed to ensure that people aren’t spoofing their location. Its technology is able to detect when people are using a VPN or some other software to manipulate their location.
“Our technology identifies when those are in use and would block a player from doing so,” he said.
The company released a map showing a sports betting “border war” during the first eight hours of legal sports betting in Kansas. The green dots on the map were approved geolocation transactions in Kansas. The red were the locations in Missouri where their technology blocked access.
The number of people in Kansas City trying to place bets in Kansas didn’t surprise Pappas. He said there has been strong interest in sports betting within the state. Similar maps would show red dots concentrated along the Illinois and Iowa borders as well.
“We don’t do this because we want to stop people from this form of recreation,” Pappas said. “We do it because it’s required by federal law and required by state law that individuals have to be located within the state.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 11:49 AM.
