BetAmerica Officially Becomes TwinSpires

IN TwinSpires betting app launches just in time for Kentucky Derby.

Since the dawn of legal sports betting in Indiana, there have been clear leaders, and clear laggers, in the market. BetRivers, BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel have experienced the highest wagering surges in the state. Then there’s BetAmerica, sitting unceremoniously at the bottom of the barrel, month after month, virtually alone as it generates far less wagering revenue than any of its rivals.

BetAmerica has consistently performed like the Little Engine That Could, except it really couldn’t. Attempts were made to improve brand recognition, and BetAmerica did indeed become more famous, but not in a positive way. The product on offer so was underwhelming that it became known for its inferiority.

Back in January, the parent company, Churchill Downs, announced it was throwing in the towel. BetAmerica would be scrapped, and a new product would be launched in its place. This time, Churchill Downs would use its famous Twin Spires brand name, already synonymous with horse race betting. Last week, the transition finally took place. BetAmerica was official rebranded to TwinSpires – just in time for the Kentucky Derby.

IN TwinSpires Betting App Launches in Indiana

After months of being the state’s lowest-performing sportsbooks, BetAmerica finished out its final full month of operation (March 2021) by handling just $76,686 worth of wagers. And that was during March Madness, so you can get idea of just how unpopular it was. The nearest bottom feeder – Horsehoe Hammond’s Caesars / Unibet sportsbook brands – pulled in $6.16 million; more than 80x than that of BetAmerica.

And with that, The Hoosier State says a not-so-fond farewell to the unimpressive betting portal, and offer a warm welcome to its replacement – TwinSpires Sportsbook.

With the Kentucky Derby right around the corner, Churchill Downs was pressed for time to complete the transition. The big race took place over the weekend, just days after the company finalized the launch of the TwinSpires sports betting app.

We won’t know just how successful the launch was until the monthly revenue reports are posted for the month of May, but one thing is all-but certain. It can’t be any worse than BetAmerica!

Why TwinSpires? Benefits for Hoosiers

Race bettors in the state should be familiar with the new title. TwinSpires is the name of Churchill Downs immensely popular racebook. With the rebranding, both racebook and sportsbook platforms are merged under a unilateral brand. The TwinSpires racing app and betting app are still two separate products, but universal branding is sure to help the sports side of the business gain more traction in among the state’s sports bettors.

The most notable benefit for Hoosiers – one that the BetAmerica platform was blatantly lacking since its December 2019 launch – is the availability of a mobile app. BetAmerica was solely browser-based. While that wouldn’t present a problem necessarily for most potential users, there are definitely some bettors out there that prefer downloading an app to their smartphone or tablet. Providing users with both app and in-browser options is critical in today’s mobile-centric market.

Ian William’s, President of Churchill Downs Online Gaming Division, is hopeful that the all-in-one product will be more attractive to bettors.

“Pursuing a single brand strategy allows us to maintain focus on integrating our horse racing wagering platform alongside our sports betting and iGaming business, which will provide our players with the ultimate online and mobile betting experience,” said Williams in a statement.

TwinSpires Sports App Features

The new TwinSpires Sportsbook offers so much more than BetAmerica ever could. According to its Betting Rules, TwinSpires has the potential to offer betting on more sports than any other sportsbook in Indiana. It lists rules for betting on over 30 different sports categories. That’s doesn’t necessarily mean they do or will offer bets on all those categories, but they can.

At present, the menu lists wagering options for 17 types of sporting events, which puts them on par with the markets top competitors. They include all the major pro sports and leagues – MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, MMA/UFC, golf, soccer, tennis and more. Between all those categories, and at any given time, you can expect to find at least 50,000 betting lines available.

As for payment options, all the usual methods are available – Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Skrill, PayNearME (Vanilla Direct), ACH and online banking. You can learn more about those here:

• Indiana Sportsbook Deposit & Withdrawal Methods

So far, the iOS app has gotten great reviews from users. The Android app is not available on Google Play. You have to download it direct from the website. The option to download it will only appear after you’ve registered an account and logged into the website. We’ve found it to work rather well – definitely better than the browser version (see below). But for now, you’ll have to take our word for it. Until it makes it way onto an Android app store, there are no user reviews to draw experiences from.

Working Out the Kinks

There are definitely still some kinks that need to be worked out at TwinSpires Indiana. As I said, Churchill Downs was pressed for time in getting the TwinSpires sports betting app and website ready for launch pre-Derby Day. That doesn’t make it okay, but it does make it more understandable. The biggest problem is that you may or many not be able to reach the correct web address, depending what page you click through to get to the IN sportsbook.

TwinSpires Indiana went live on April 21, 2021. It is now May 3. Nearly two weeks have passed. But this is what we found when trying to navigate to the Indiana sportsbook.

From the main TwinSpires.com website, if you click on Sports, only Colorado and Michigan are listed and linked as offering the TwinSpires sports product. It still says Indiana players should use BetAmerica. Scroll down further and click the Indiana link, and it will take you to a TwinSpires.com web address, but not the correct one. That page (in.twinspires.com/sports) is blank. If you take “sports” off the end of the link, it will take you to the correct Indiana TwinSpires website, where you can click the Sports link and land on the right page.

Generally speaking, we recommend using an app over the website, anyway. Mobile apps tend to be better at utilizing geolocation systems and legitimately verifying a user’s presence in Indiana, as required by the regulatory guidelines of the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC).