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Two Mississippi based Boyd Gaming casinos have commenced with sports betting operations, after the Mississippi Gaming Commission granted final approval.

The IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi, and Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall in Tunica, represent the US gaming and hospitality firms first sportsbook forays outside of Nevada.

International Game Technology (IGT) is the firm unveiled as powering the retail sports betting operations, enabling guests of the resort casinos to place pre-game and in-play wagers over the counter.

Enrico Drago, IGT senior vice president of PlayDigital, commented: “IGT is pleased to extend our long-standing relationship with Boyd Gaming to include sports betting technology for its Mississippi-based casinos.

“IGT invested significant time and resources to ensure that our modular sports betting solution was market-ready for the rapidly evolving US sports betting market, and that our customers in the various states could benefit from it as soon as regulation allows.

“IGT’s momentum in US sports betting is exciting and reinforces that we prioritise results for our customers over anything else.”

Boyd Gaming, who operate ten sportsbooks across its Southern Nevada entities, also details that both Mississippi properties have a longer-term vision of also leveraging IGT’s self-service kiosks, in addition to other sports wagering technologies.

“The expansion of sports betting is an exciting growth opportunity for our company, and we are pleased to offer this new gaming entertainment product to our Mississippi customers via IGT’s proven, user-friendly technology,” said Vincent Schwartz, Boyd Gaming senior vice president of operations.

This follows a duo of deals completed by Boyd Gaming during the last week, which it is hoped will drive the organisations growth further still throughout a plethora of US states.

An “unprecedented partnership” agreed with MGM Resorts International was followed up by uniting with FanDuel Group, the Paddy Power Betfair subsidiary, which will increase online gaming and sports betting interests in a variety of jurisdictions.