Nick Bogdanovich is eager for the sexy part.
For the next several hours, though, he’ll continue working frenetically with his new/old co-workers as Boomer’s Sportsbook prepares to open its first retail location in Elko, Nevada, on Friday.
The operation, led by fellow industry veteran Joe Asher, received final approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) last week and boasts a seasoned staff, including Bogdanovich, who left his post as sportsbook manager at Circa Sports to become head of trading at Boomer’s.
But titles don’t truly capture the job at hand in the early weeks of a new business, he said.
“It’s all hands on deck. Everyone will be doing everything,” Bogdanovich told InGame. “ It’s definitely an expanded role in that area.
“The fun stuff is actually being up and booking and taking bets. That’s the exciting part of the industry. What you’re not seeing is the interviews, the hiring, the training. We’re all learning a new system, putting in procedures and processes and training guys. I don’t want to say grunt work or dirty work, but obviously the necessary work. The sexy stuff won’t start until we start taking bets.”
The difficult stuff includes wedging Boomer’s into an established sports betting market as an entirely new company without a corporate casino to help market and entice customers to a retail operation. Boomer’s will feature a mobile app eventually and, Asher hopes, upward of 30 retail physical sportsbooks.
“Let’s face it, the people dominating the arena have spent billions of dollars on acquiring customers,” Bogdanovich said. “The one thing about Nevada is there’s not that many books. If you look at it, Caesars has 70, MGM 20, Station [Casinos] 20.
“There’s just not many operations. People, I think, will be receptive to another set of numbers. We’ll definitely have some material that other people don’t have.”
Boomer’s mission is differentiation
Boomer’s will have to entice customers with its details, Bogdanovich said, through fair pricing and creativity in markets.
“The content nowadays is crazy as it is. The menus are so deep, but we’ll find some stuff that other people don’t [have],” he assured. “We’ll try to be creative with props.”
Bogdanovich began his gambling career as the sportsbook director at Binion’s Horseshoe in 1989 and subsequently held similar roles at Mandalay Bay, Club Cal Neva, William Hill US, and Circa.
Launching well ahead of football season, one of the two most lucrative periods for sportsbooks, was crucial, Asher noted in the final NGCB approval meeting. Bogdanovich sees it as an opportunity to impress a savvy sports bettor community early.
“Obviously if you’re a sports [betting] veteran, there’s a good chance you’re pretty active come September,” he said. “So no question that I think we’re opening at the right time, and the economy is fairly good, so I think it’ll be interesting to see how many customers we can get from the beginning. We know this is a two-, three-, four-year process, but it would be nice to have some action out of the chute.”
