CLEVELAND — At Monday’s Cleveland Cavalier’s game, for the first time, ticket holders and fans alike could walk into Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse and place legal sports bets.
Ceasars Sportsbook inside Rocket Mortgage opened Monday located in the northwest corner of the arena’s glass atrium and accessible from the outside with doors near Huron Road and Ontario Street.
“I think about March Madness, I think with the number of TVs and games you can be watching, it would be perfect for bringing more people in to the arena and to Cavs games,” said fan Mitchell Cunningham.
Robert Harrison, who placed a bet on his phone but wanted to see the new sports book inside Rocket Mortgage, said he thinks sports betting is great, if you don’t get carried away.
“It gives you a little more interest in some of the games. I’m not a big gambler but doing $10 here or there, just with the Browns kind of sucking this year, it gives you interest in the other NFL games and some of the other sports games,” he said.
The sportsbook has wall-to-wall flatscreen televisions, five betting windows, and 15 betting kiosks. Marissa Murthy said the kiosks were user-friendly.
“I have never sports bet in my entire life, downloading the app was easy, doing it here was also easy enough, so pretty fool-proof,” she said.
The space is open year-round on both event and non-event days. You don’t need a ticket to enter but you do if you’d like to go to other areas of Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
And while 12 licensed retail sportsbooks and 16 online sportsbooks officially opened for business Jan. 1 and 2. More than 300 other northeast Ohio bars, restaurants and stores have been approved by the Casino Control Commission and will launch throughout the year.
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