Hartford Business Journal

9 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | AUGUST 23, 2021 We're here for business, family and family business. Here to help you plan for the future. And still here when that future comes. We've been building lifetime relationships for more than 150 years. Visit IonBank.com to see how we can be there for your life. Here for life. Member FDIC TM ON THE RECORD | Q&A where iGaming is more a female audience. What you see at the casino won't change much online. Certainly sports betting as we have seen it historically has been more male dominated early on, but expectations are that will probably change as it becomes more known and popular. Q: Mohegan Digital has said it will provide "cutting-edge" online gaming technology. What does that mean? From an iGaming perspective our partner here in Connecticut is FanDuel. They are the premier online sports betting platform in the U.S. Our partnership with them on sports betting and daily fantasy is really bringing the best-of-breed technology into the state to provide our customers that great experience. On the iGaming side we are partnering with them to bring the best digital content that will have a lot of crossover with the favorite games that our customers have within the casino but also creating new games with partners like International Game Technology and Scientific Games. Q: Why partner with a third party to launch digital gambling rather than create something internally? It's a go-to-market strategy to immediately bring the best to our customers. We want to bring in the right technology that we know was already successful. And with the time it takes to build new technology, particularly with the speed at which the state wants to go live, it was more important to bring the product to market immediately. Q: When are iGaming and sports betting going to launch? We are hoping and expecting this fall. There are certain things the state is still putting into place and they are doing a great job to make sure that is all in order but we are definitely hoping in early fall that we will be able to go live. But we are waiting for the state to make that decision. Q: How big of an opportunity are iGaming and sports betting for Mohegan? We have our own internal numbers. When we look at New Jersey I think they've done about a billion dollars in handle in the big months in sports betting. We would expect we would be in line with states like New Jersey based upon our population in terms of those top-line revenues. In terms of what numbers we are projecting, a lot of that has to do with the state and what the requirements are, so it's really a challenge to put those numbers together. Q: What will the physical sportsbook be like and what kind of interactions will there be between the app and sportsbook? The physical sportsbook, we expect it to be one of the largest and best on the East Coast. The technology that is used in the sportsbook will be the same that is used on the app with FanDuel. We expect it to be the go-to destination for New England. We will have a temporary sportsbook within the Bow & Arrow Sports Bar that is on the floor and then we will be building out the primary sportsbook that we expect to be ready in the early part of 2022. We will be retrofitting the Race Book. Q: How will Mohegan differentiate itself from Foxwoods and the CT Lottery? The lottery will only have sports betting, they won't have the iGaming piece. That will just be with us and Foxwoods. We will be using the experiences and property to really build upon the digital success. You will see a lot happening where the app and website will be complementary with the retail experiences. I think that's where we will build our success. Q: What's the marketing strategy to get your customers to your digital offerings? It will have a wide range of social media, digital media, out of home TV. One of the exciting things for us this year is our 25th anniversary. You'll be seeing a lot around our 25th anniversary and our digital offerings. Q: Who can actually gamble? Is it just Connecticut residents? You don't have to be a Connecticut resident, you just have to be physically in the state to be able to use the app. Q: How does the technology work to ensure that only people who are physically in the state are using it? We will be using geofencing technology. There are several companies that have been doing this since the emergence of New Jersey and being able to geofence people in the state. All the states that have sports betting and/or online gaming utilize this technology, which has been proven for many years.

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