Atlantic City, New Jersey – June 20, 2019 – McCann Systems and Ocean Casino Resort are proud to announce that the William Hill Sportsbook has taken the top honors for Commercial Integrator’s 2019 Best Casino Integration Project Award.

A Unique Solution for a Historic Location

Ocean Resort Casino revitalizes the iconic Atlantic City boardwalk with the debut of an exclusive sports betting destination. The 7,500 square-foot sportsbook on the casino’s gaming floor is equipped with a bar featuring a four-sided Unilumin LED ticker, videowalls, odds boards, and live In-Play betting odds. Bettors can wager on sports like football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, and tennis. The book is a truly integrated experience with a center bar (open 24 hours) and surrounded by state-of-the-art panoramic video wall technology in the heart of the gaming floor.

Staying Ahead of the Sportsbook Ruling

Designed and executed by established casino technology integrators, McCann Systems, the book welcomes sports bettors for the first time ever following a historic high court ruling.
The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) had limited sports betting to only one state, Nevada, for the last 25 years. New Jersey, followed by various states, had drafted several Senate-backed bills to repeal the federal law and bring regulated sports betting into each state-level economy, but none made it through the district and lower courts. Finally, the United States Supreme Court heard the case on December 2017, putting everyone in the gaming industry on high alert until the official ruling in favor of New Jersey on May 14, 2018.

“In the last several months, there’s been a lot of visiting and speculating on options for sportsbook builds and expansions,” says Ken Newbury, Senior VP of Technical Sales and Engineering at McCann Systems. “We’ve been doing some design work to get ahead of the betting technology curve and [Ocean Resort Casino] went green immediately after the Supreme Court announcement. It is wild how quickly things are happening.”
As this ruling ripples across the US and state and local governments allow sportsbooks where they have not before, McCann Systems has been establishing relationships with owner/operators of gaming rooms as the leader in casino AV technology.

A Fast Moving and Brilliant Installation

Good planning proved beneficial to AC Ocean Walk, the company that owns Ocean Resort Casino. With only about one month’s notice between the high court ruling and Ocean’s scheduled grand opening, McCann Systems was able to quickly transform those designs into reality. A scaled version of the book was immediately available at the resort’s opening in June, with the fully dedicated, technology-driven, brilliant space that is open today.

Custom direct-view LED videowalls engage bettors with great sightlines from anywhere in the book. Three massive media walls display all the action with larger than life detail using Unilumin’s 2.6mm LED. Fine pitch LED flanks the four-sided bar while two odds boards give patrons all the real-time stats they need to make informed wagers. Additional high-definition displays are found throughout the bar as well as the VIP Lounge.
A powerful and zoned audio system completes the immersive sports betting experience with full coverage throughout the space. The sound system is optimized with high-end digital signal processing, so each official call can be heard above the casino crowd with crystal clarity.
An intuitive control system interface enables local and remote control applications of custom layouts, source routing, and audio control of the system.

Customer Reaction: Mission Accomplished

A project of this magnitude and these time constraints could only be trusted to a veteran AV firm. McCann Systems has pioneered close to two dozen casino, racebook, and sportsbook environments over the last decade. Their sports betting solutions and casino digital signage can be found in several states (even the Bahamas!), but most notably Las Vegas and Atlantic City. A repeat winner, McCann Systems is responsible for the 2016 Commercial Integrator Best Casino Integration at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas Race and Sportsbook, as well as The Cromwell Sportsbook, touting the tightest LED pixel pitch on the Las Vegas Strip.

Ed Barkowitz of the Philadelphia Inquirer had this to say about the Ocean Casino Resort Sportsbook: “Still the most impressive sportsbook…wide open floor, with cushioned seats and couches, plus some high-top tables…best-odds boards and TVs in the area”.
PlayNJ.com reports that Ocean Resort will also feature online gaming including an online casino mobile application. Ocean Resort Casino will also have poker rooms, a standout feature amongst other Atlantic City casinos. Sports betting is expected to bring about $13 million in tax revenue to New Jersey during its first year

Barbara Nathan from njgamblingwebsites.com was also wowed by the book: “First and foremost, Ocean Resort is to be commended for having its sportsbook up and running on the same day as the casino itself. With the exception of the Borgata, it beat all of the existing Atlantic City casinos to the punch.” She continued, “next on the agenda, was the plan to offer sports bettors as soon as possible a world-class sportsbook on a par with the top sportsbooks in Las Vegas. Mission accomplished.