Caesars Casino Michigan has made a transition to Caesars Palace Casino Michigan.
The name change is part of Caesars Entertainment’s effort to ramp up their online casino product and separate it from the Caesars Sportsbook app, which features a watered down casino.
Along with the name change, the new Michigan online casino features an expanded gaming library and a direct connection to its Caesars Rewards program.
Can the new focus help Caesars make a push to become a top-five online casino in Michigan?
Caesars Palace Online Casino Michigan a new standalone app
Overall, Caesars Palace has plans to go live in all six states that it has online casino licenses.
“Our new iCasino product Caesars Palace online is now live in multiple states and pending regulatory approval in the others,” said Caesars Sports and Online Gaming President Eric Hession during Caesars Q2 investors’ call on Tuesday. “The new iCasino product offers a significantly improved product and enhanced marketing capabilities, all combined with the compelling benefits of Caesars rewards.”
Caesars Casino Michigan was previously just an added feature to the online sportsbook. Caesars Palace Casino is its own application, separate from Caesars Sportsbook & Casino, which will maintain its current name and platform.
The casino feature will remain on the Caesars Sportsbook & Casino app, but not include the expanding gaming library of Caesars Palace Casino.
The new online casino is designed to help create a seamless transition for players to be able to transfer rewards points and use them in-person at Caesars properties.
What does Caesars Palace Casino Michigan offer?
While the layout of Caesars Palace Casino is similar to what we saw with Caesars Casino, you do notice an immediate difference in terms of game offerings and the presentation of available games.
Back in June, Caesars ranked near the bottom of Michigan’s 15 online casinos in terms of game count, tallying just 234 total options.
Caesars Palace Casino has greatly increased its gaming total, posting well over 500 in its new format.
“It’s a casino-first entry into our digital business,” said Caesars Chief Executive Officer and Director Tom Reeg. “And in terms of capabilities bonusing, segmentation, proprietary games, live dealer, it is light years beyond what we’ve been operating under.”
The expanded gaming library for Caesars Palace Casino includes more exclusive games, more table games, more live dealer, more jackpots and more than double the amount of slots. Here’s the latest gaming count for Caesars Palace:
- “New” Games: 11
- Exclusives: 8
- Live Dealer: 15
- Jackpots: 23
- Video Poker: 7
- Table Games: 37
- Slots: 486
Caesars has confirmed that casino access will still be available on the Caesars Sportsbook & Casino app for the foreseeable future.
Caesars hoping to improve Michigan online casino status
While Caesars Casino Michigan wasn’t a failure by any stretch, it also wasn’t a major player in the state’s iGaming industry.
Over its lifetime in Michigan, Caesars has generated $120.5 million in revenue. That ranks seventh in the state’s all-time online casino revenue rankings.
Compare that to Caesars Sportsbook, which clearly established itself as the fifth best sportsbook in the state. Over its lifetime, it has $681.6 million in online handle. Recent months have even seen it fourth in online handle, passing Barstool.
Caesars would like to see its online casino make a push toward similar results as its sportsbook. The addition of Caesars Palace Casino is the first step.
“We are fully aware that we have seen significant competition in the iCasino space. We don’t expect that we’re just going to come in and run everybody over,” Reeg said. “But, we feel like we’ve got the product to start to build market share, and wrapping that into Caesars Rewards has been and will continue to be powerful for that business.”
Does Caesars Casino account transfer to Caesars Palace?
Yes, customers with a Caesars Casino Michigan account will be able to log-in to Caesars Palace Casino with the same credentials and bankroll they had established.
They can also build on their Caesars Rewards points by playing online casino games.
Those points can be applied to earning online casino bonus cash, discounted rates on Caesars hotels or events, or redeeming for Caesars merchandise.
Will the switch to Caesars Palace Casino Michigan be successful?
It’s clear that Caesars has finally gotten with the times and saw just how fruitful a successful online casino application can be.
Online casinos are drawing far more revenue than online sportsbooks, yet Caesars has elected to push the sportsbook instead.
Granted, online sports betting is available in far more states than online casinos. But, with iGaming picking up steam to be legalized in more states in the years to come, it’s a good idea to start putting more eggs into that basket.
We’ve seen the success BetMGM has had with its online casino and what that has meant toward the company earning overall profitability in Q2.
Caesars is set to begin marketing its new online casino product soon. Though it won’t put in the same marketing effort as we saw during the launch of the sportsbook (thankfully, those J.B. Smoove commercial were relentless), it’s become a clear focus for the company.
“You should expect us to be visible in terms of promoting the app but nothing anywhere close to what you saw when we launched the sports app,” Reeg said. “I would describe this right now in iCasino as for the last couple of years is invisible from a marketing standpoint, will now become visible in the next month or so.”
Caesars also sees this move as a path to a strong finish to its 2023 business projections.
“You should be expecting third quarter for the digital business as a coin flip as to which side of break-even we’re on, but we should be close,” Reeg said. “Your fourth quarter should be a significantly positive quarter. And then we should be positive from then on.”
Time will tell if these projections hit, but the August revenue report should be an interesting indicator as to how Caesars Palace Casino is going to perform in Michigan.
