Penn National invests in mobile sports betting app

Casino operator acquires minority stake in iPro and will co-market in-play sports betting app Ringit! 

The interactive arm of casino operator Penn National has made a minority investment in in-play mobile sports betting platform developer iPro, which launched its Ringit! app last month. [private]

Penn Interactive Ventures and iPro have agreed to co-market Ringit! to Penn National’s Marquee Rewards database, which has 3 million registered users across its 27 properties in North America.

Chris Sheffield, MD of Penn Interactive, said the operator believed there was a “significant overlap” between fantasy sports and casino players.

“We believe iPro’s new Ringit! sports prediction platform offers a unique, real-time, social and fantasy sports game, capable of packing a weekend of action into every game, and that our customers will really enjoy it,” Sheffield said.

“At this stage, Penn National is focused solely on marketing the social version of Ringit!, which enables customers to play for fun with no prize incentives, to our Marquee Rewards database, and very much see this product as a great way to further engage with our customers at our properties and beyond,” he added.

iPro was founded by former head of interactive at IGT Robert Melendres and a number of online gaming industry veterans last year.

Ringit! is the first product they have launched, and allow players to compete in real-time by predicting the next play, drive, score and other match events from their mobile devices while watching NFL contests.

iPro said it will give players more than 15,000 pick options on every NFL game, each with dynamically changing odds based on the game status, team tendencies and players on the field.