PlayIllinois is your local resource for information about all legal Illinois gambling and sports betting. Below, you can find out who we are, why we do what we do, and most importantly, how you can reach out to us with your questions.
Our Mission
Contact Us
Catena Media Us, Inc.
8565 S. Eastern Avenue
Suite 150
Las Vegas, NV 89123
(646) 543-0245
PlayIllinois Team
Managing Editor: Dave Briggs
Before joining PlayIllinois in the summer of 2022, Dave Briggs worked for 25 years as a writer and editor, mainly covering horse racing in Canada. Dave holds a master’s degree in journalism from Western University and was a 2018 inductee into the Communicators’ Corner of the US Harness Racing Hall of Fame. Beyond a deep passion for family and music, Dave has a mostly tragic, lifelong love of Detroit sports teams. He lives in Port Stanley, Ontario, with his wife and their beloved Vizsla named California.
Read more from Dave here
Lead Writer: C.J. Pierre
C.J. Pierre has been covering news and sports for over a decade for both online and TV broadcasts. He was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN and is an alum of Minnesota State University: Moorhead. He recently dove into tribal casino and online gambling news. He also covered the launch of sports betting in Arizona. C.J. has experience as a reporter and videographer and has covered high school, college and professional sports throughout his career, most notably following Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Vikings and North Dakota State University football.
Read more from C.J. here.
Contributor: Matt Boecker
Matt Boecker is a 2020 graduate of Northern Illinois University hailing from Chicago. Boecker specializes in coverage of sports betting and legalization. Former teammates and coworkers describe him as a nice guy who tries hard and loves the game.
Read more from Matt here.
Contributor: Cole Rush
Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. Most of those words can be found in gambling publications such as PlayIllinois, iGaming Business, Gaming Today, Bonus.com, MidwestSharp.com, ICE 365, and IGB North America. Cole also covers pop culture and books for Tor.com and TheQuillToLive.com. Cole has more than eight years of experience writing about gambling and entertainment.
Read more from Cole here.
Contributor: Darren Cooper
Darren Cooper was born and raised in Southern Louisiana, just a short pirogue ride away from New Orleans. He started his journalism career at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and has been a writer and columnist in New Jersey since 1998. He’s won 14 statewide press awards and earned his first Associated Press Sports Editors Top 10 award in 2022.
Read more from Darren here.
Content Manager: Joe Boozell
Joe Boozell, who lives in the Chicago area, was previously the Managing Editor for PlayIllinois.com. Before, he was a college sports writer for NCAA.com (beginning in 2015). Joe’s work has also appeared in Bleacher Report, FoxSports.com and NBA.com. Growing up, Boozell squared off against Anthony Davis and Frank Kaminsky in the Chicagoland basketball scene … you can imagine how that went.
Read more from Joe Boozell here.
Head of Production, Play Sites: Kim Yuhl
Kim Yuhl is the content lead for Play-branded sites, including PlayIllinois.com. She has experience writing and reporting on poker culture and the legalization and launch of sports betting in the US. Yuhl was a business story strategist for small businesses. She has a bachelor’s degree in communications.
More About PlayIllinois
PlayIllinois is the Illinois-centric site for a series of Play-branded news and informational sites available throughout the country. We cover all aspects of Illinois gambling, including the Chicago casino project, the burgeoning sports betting industry, casinos, lottery and VGTs.
We are not directly affiliated with any specific casino, sportsbook, mobile sports betting app or gaming website. We are an independently owned and operated commercial organization.
Advertising Disclosure
Our funding comes via advertising relationships with several legal online gaming operators. In some cases, when you visit a site, including online sportsbooks, casino sites, poker sites and daily fantasy sports sites, we may receive financial compensation from the casino or poker site. We may also sell advertising to various partners.
Our policy regarding advertisers is simple:
- Advertisers do not have a say over the content on PlayIllinois.com.
- Our goal is to provide credible, objective information about legal online gaming options in Indiana, specifically and more generally throughout the US. We believe that this goal naturally produces the best information for both customers and operators, therefore for us.
- We mark all paid advertisements or advertisements that appear in a format (such as banner ads) that are widely understood to be advertisements.