There is a chance that the Illinois online sportsbook registration may go away on Saturday, Sept. 19, and the in-person registration requirement will return.
However, if you already have an online sports betting account with a sportsbook in Illinois, you won’t have to trek to the casino after Saturday.
That’s why it’s a good idea to sign up for as many online sportsbooks as possible before Sept. 19.
Right now, there are four sportsbooks in Illinois:
So, if you haven’t registered at one of these sportsbooks by Sept. 19, you may have to visit a casino to sign up, depending on Gov. JB Pritzker‘s decision later this week.
If Pritzker chooses to bring back in-person registration, here are the Illinois online sportsbooks and the retail location where you would to have go to sign up:
- BetRivers Sportsbook: Rivers Casino, 3000 S. River Road, Des Plaines
- DraftKings: DraftKings at Casino Queen, 200 S. Front St., East St. Louis
- FanDuel: Par-A-Dice Casino, 21 Blackjack Blvd., East Peoria
- PointsBet: Hawthorne Race Course, 3501 S. Laramie Ave., Cicero
If you’ve already registered for these apps, you don’t need to do anything. If you haven’t but would like to, you’re going to want to sign up quickly unless you’d prefer to make a trip out to a casino.
Generous promotions in Illinois
Sportsbook operators are offering plenty of generous promotions in the early stages of Illinois sports betting. Let’s look at Week 1 of the NFL season as an example.
Upon launch, PointsBet eventually offered Bears +100 versus the Lions with its Crowd Boost promotion.
With FanDuel’s Spread the Love promotion, you could bet on the Rams +39 against the Cowboys.
And finally, DraftKings gave new depositors the chance to bet $1 to win $100 on any NFL team to win on the moneyline on Sunday. That included the Ravens, who trounced the Browns and had the highest spread to cover among all teams.
Illinois online sportsbooks realize that in-person registration may return soon, so they want to get as many people to register as quickly as possible.
Illinois flip-flopping registration history
Pritzker signed the Illinois gaming bill into law last year, which included in-person registration.
In June, he suspended the in-person registration requirement because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in late July, he let the executive order expire, and online registration was no longer allowed.
For a few weeks, anyway.
Because on Aug. 21, Pritzker lifted the in-person registration requirement once again until at least Sept. 19.
BetRivers launched its online sportsbook in June, but the latest reversal paved the way for DraftKings, FanDuel and PointsBet to launch their mobile sports betting products.
Illinois’ COVID-19 situation hasn’t gotten better since late August, but we will see what happens on or before Sept. 19.
