Review Of The Beau Rivage Sportsbook
As of this writing, the Beau Rivage – owned and operated by MGM Resorts International – is one of the top Mississippi sportsbooks that is currently in operation and actually offering action on all major professional and collegiate sports. However, before we get into our review of the Beau Rivage sportsbook – which is probably going to end up being the best one in the whole state of Mississippi, if we are being honest – let’s take a look at the historical situation that is liable to take the Beau Rivage to the next level of sports betting excellence.
Say it is the end of the 1990s, right in the middle of Mississippi’s casino boom. Let’s say you are a hotel owner and casino operator, and you want to open the best gaming facility on the most marketable piece of real estate on the Gulf of Mexico in an area that has already started to pull in big names in the industry like Harrah’s and Caesars Entertainment. Let’s say your combination hotel, casino and resort property had the biggest gambling floor, the best restaurants, and was even the tallest building of any kind in the entire state of Mississippi – that is to say, it was a roaring success.
With legal sports betting now a possibility in the Magnolia State and around the country due to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), the Beau Rivage’s dominant position among Gulf Coast casinos is virtually a guarantee. For that reason, we here at MississippiSportsbooks.com believe a review of the Beau Rivage sportsbook is in order – that way sports bettors in town to get in on the action will have all the information they need to get started betting and winning big.
With all the hype surrounding legal sports betting in Mississippi, there is no doubt that one of the first questions we always get asked is some variation of “Is the Beau Rivage sportsbook open for business?” As of right now, the Beau Rivage’s sports betting shop is open for business, and all major sports professional and collegiate, which of course includes football. This is especially convenient, considering that football is an institution almost on the level of a secular state religion throughout the South. Like any MGM casino, the Beau Rivage is sure to offer plenty of new player promotions to keep you betting on the sportsbook’s dime for a little while, not to mention all kinds of bonus offers for return customers. And you can also enjoy having access to all the sports bar essentials too: big screen TVs, cold draft beer and plenty of good food to get you through the big game.
The Beau Rivage sportsbook has already shown itself to be well received by the millions of dedicated sports enthusiasts in the Magnolia State. Just head over to the Beau Rivage’s Sports Book & Bar and get settled in with a drink and a snack while you watch your favorite games on the multiple HD flat screen TVs set up for your enjoyment. The Sports Book & Bar is located nearby the Beau Rivage’s popular buffet, which close to the main gaming floor and the central bar area. You will basically be in the center of the casino at this point, so you are not in for a terribly long walk from the main parking lot area or the one closest to the hotel’s attached convention center either, and there is practically no way you can get lost. Though considered the largest and most lavish sportsbook in the area at this time, the sportsbook is in a temporary location. The operators plan to start construction on a $7 million sportsbook in 2019, after the Super Bowl.
How Much Does It Cost To Go Play & Stay At The Beau Rivage?
You do not have to worry about breaking the bank when you play and stay at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino. Hotel rates start at $89 and go up to about $350 on select weekends. Hotel amenities include mobile check-in, a world-class spa, salon, and a pool with views of the gulf. As far as the actual gaming, you will definitely want to become an M Life Rewards member. Though the rewards program does not offer comp points for sports bets at this time, you can still get points for table games and slots. These can be used for drinks, food, tickets, concerts, sporting events, and more. Even without current bonuses or promotions in the sportsbook, visiting the Beau Rivage may still be worth it. If you are after big bonuses and free bets, you should head to an online sportsbook like Bovada or SportsBetting that always offer huge incentives.
As befitting its positioning at Biloxi’s most prestigious and profitable casino and resort property, the sportsbook at the Beau Rivage does indeed offer full-service betting, just like any comparable sportsbook doing business in Las Vegas or anywhere else that sports betting is legal. This is fully backed up by the sports betting legalization and regulatory law passed by the Magnolia State’s legislature, which allows any authorized sportsbook operating in Mississippi to offer action on all professional and collegiate sporting events, and even other amateur events like the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games. Additionally, all Mississippi sportsbooks will be able to offer a full menu of current betting odds, futures, prop bets (for both teams and individual players), futures odds, and, presumably, special betting lines as well. Be on the lookout all these exciting options now that the Beau Rivage’s sports betting outlet is properly up and running.
If for whatever reason you want to hang out in Biloxi but you need to get some fresh air after winning big too much inside the Beau Rivage, your best bet for full-service sports betting is to head over to any number of legal offshore sportsbook sites based in foreign countries. In that crowded market space, we think sites like Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI, and 5Dimes are the best. These sites have all the same features as all the forthcoming land-based casino sportsbooks in Biloxi will soon be offering and that the Beau Rivage already does, but they also have a few other exclusive advantages not shared by domestic sports betting outlets of any kind. Principally, you can bankroll your wagering account and collect your winnings using methods like bank wire transfers and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, cutting out the middleman, so to speak, so you can have access to your money how and when you want it.
There are very few downsides to the Mississippi sports betting law, which passed with overwhelming support among Hospitality State lawmakers. However, the fact is that neither the legislation passed in 2017 to legalize wagering on sports in the event of a PASPA repeal nor the regulations approved by the Magnolia State legislature during its 2018 session allow placing bets on your mobile device to the extent that they could. You will definitely be able to place bets on your mobile device inside the Beau Rivage sportsbook at the casino, but only on designated grounds of the casino.
What that means in practice is that you won’t be able to use your smartphone, tablet, laptop or whatever mobile device you might prefer in any of the parking lots or garages at the Beau Rivage, though you will be able to do so inside the main facility. Though is this is far from an ideal situation for sports bettors in Mississippi, there is a silver lining in that there is nothing in the law that entirely rules out the possibility that expansion of mobile sports betting could become a reality in the future. Consider this limit on placing bets with your mobile device to be an expedient measure the legislature used to get sports betting laws and regulations passed with minimal fuss – this should actually enable more substantive amendments to be made with less drama in years to come. At any rate, Mississippi sports bettors can still use the mobile apps provided by sites like Bovada and BetOnline to wager anywhere, anytime. You can place bets at an offshore mobile sportsbook while waiting in line, at a restaurant, or even sitting on the casino floor.
Due to the prohibitions placed on some sports betting activities by the Federal Wire Act of 1961, even the Mississippi sportsbooks like the Beau Rivage and others that are soon to be open in Biloxi are going to have a hard time allowing out of state bettors to make wagers by way of a proxy service. That means the chances that the Beau Rivage is going to offer proxy betting or even allow it are fairly slim to nonexistent. Still, as is the case with mobile betting, which we discussed earlier in our review of the Beau Rivage sportsbook, there is no language in the Magnolia State’s sports betting law that specifically and permanently forbids betting on sports by proxy. Ultimately, this could be an area that the sportsbook’s showrunners and lawmakers may choose to revisit sooner or later.
For those of you that are not aware of the ins and outs of proxy betting services, suffice it to say that businesses of this type attempt to get around the ban on using a wired communication device (including telephone, computer communications using the internet, even telegraphs, if you can believe it) to facilitate an out of state sports bet. What that means in more practical terms is that a bettor who lives outside Mississippi might want to place a wager on Mississippi State to win the College Football Playoffs come next fall could, theoretically, find a proxy service to place that bet for him or her without the need for them to actually be in Mississippi.
Since it is awfully difficult to envision a way in which this could be carried out without a person having at the very least a phone conversation with their appointed proxy bettor, services of this type are usually frowned upon or outright banned by most casinos offering sportsbooks. Accordingly, that is likely going to be the case for the sportsbook at the Beau Rivage as well. At least, that is all we can speculate on the matter at this stage of our review of the Beau Rivage sportsbook, which, although it is open for business, has not explicitly stated one way or another whether or not proxy betting will be allowed.