Mass response

Bettors in Kansas fired the state’s legal sports betting market into life in a big way on launch day, and attempts by their Missouri neighbors to gatecrash the party proved futile.

identified and blocked 16,000 attempts

On Thursday, GeoComply Solutions Inc identified and blocked 16,000 attempts to access Kansas sportsbook apps from Missouri. The compliance assistant, which supports all of Kansas’ mobile sportsbooks, took to Twitter on Saturday to share how its blocking technology works:

The Canadian company revealed that of the 16,000 out-of-jurisdiction access attempts, around 60% came from Missouri’s most populous metropolis, Kansas City. It also disclosed that it approved over 522,000 geolocation checks within Kansas state, all in the first eight hours of the market going live.

a strong measure of the public’s desire to wager

While the early data feedback does not list the number of wagers, GeoComply spokesperson John Pappas said the figures are nevertheless a strong measure of the public’s desire to wager. He also deemed the launch-day stats “actually quite impressive for a state the size of Kansas.”

Bitter rivals

With the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs — who made BetMGM their exclusive sports betting partner on Thursday — making their home in the state, there is huge interest in sports betting for Missouri.

Missouri Republican State Senator, Caleb Rowden, expressed just how deeply it rankles that Kansas has launched sports betting first. He told Fox4 on Friday: “I generally hate the state of Kansas in every way, shape, and form. To see them do something better than us, I don’t love.”

Pappas, meanwhile, was unsurprised about the thousands of Missourians attempting to piggyback on Kansas’ party. Pappas said Saturday via Twitter:

Pappas added that GeoComply’s remit was not to stop those in Missouri from “this form of recreation.” Rather, he said: “We do it because it’s required by federal law and required by state law that individuals have to be located within the state.”

An impressive start

Another way to gauge the success of Kansas’ betting launch is through comparison with other US states. According to GeoComply, the number of unique devices using the sports betting apps in the first eight hours after launch in Kansas hit the same level as Louisiana on launch day. Based on the percentage of the adult population, Kansas even exceeded New York’s debut.

No doubt the news is music to the ears of the six sportsbooks approved by the state lottery to start accepting online wagers in Kansas from September 1. BetMGM, Barstool Sportsbook, Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, and PointsBet all rolled out their apps Thursday as part of a soft launch that will shift into full launch mode on September 8.