Caesars steps further into iGaming trend with Caesars Palace App

Caesars (CZR) has launched a new iGaming product under its Caesars Palace brand in a push to create a seamless transition for gamblers to bet at Caesars Palace online and transfer rewards over to in-person rewards, the company told Yahoo Finance.

"We're pushing real-world experiences at Caesars properties to online customers," Caesars Digital head of iGaming Matt Sunderland told Yahoo Finance. "We're doing the same in physical properties to push customers to digital, to sort of have this complementary experience."

While sports gambling has grown in popularity, many operators have also made a push into iGaming, which offers gamblers traditional casino games, and other offerings, virtually.

The new app, the Caesars Palace Online Casino, has been undergoing a soft launch over the past few weeks and will soon be operational in the US in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia as well as in Ontario, Canada. The operator is still awaiting regulatory approval in New Jersey.

Caesars Palace Online Casino will include traditional table games like Blackjack and poker as well as virtual slot machines and roulette. Sunderland pointed out a key part of launching the app is to expand Caesars' ability to "talk to a single customer," meaning their bettors can transfer rewards points from the app to brick-and-mortar properties or the Caesars Sportsbook.

Caesars had previously teased the launch of a standalone iGaming app on its most recent earnings call in May, with CEO Tom Reeg saying, "We really think the opportunity there starts in earnest beginning of third quarter when we launch the new iCasino app."

The Caesars Palace Online Casino app will likely be a point of discussion on the earnings call when Caesars reports on Tuesday after the closing bell.

Like sports gambling, iGaming is seen as a growth area for casinos and betting operators in the US. Most products bring similar aspects from a traditional casino into online form for the iGaming experience in the six US states where iGaming is legal.

In the first four months of the year, iGaming accounted for $1.99 billion in total revenue, per the American Gaming Association. By comparison, sports betting generated $3.67 billion in total revenue while operating in 26 more jurisdictions.

"Players in North America are different than what I've experienced in the UK and Europe in that they already understand and go to large physical casinos," Sunderland said. "They know how to play these games. They have an affinity to these sorts of games, and it's been sort of easy to convert them to online casinos in those states that have regulated [iGaming]."

iGaming has been used as a "cross-selling" format across the industry. DraftKings (DKNG) and BetMGM executives have referenced iGaming as a key product to offer more options to their sports gambling customers.

In May, BetMGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle called iGaming "a key thing," when discussing his digital product's path to consistent profitability. Meanwhile, at the end of the first quarter, DraftKings claimed to be leading iGaming gross gaming revenue in the US with 26% of the market share in the quarter, the company said on its first quarter earnings call.

Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.

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