Pennsylvania online casino players now have one more brand to choose from, as Tropicana made its Keystone State debut on April 25, 2023. It’s not a whole new product, however, just the original Caesars Online with a fresh coat of paint.
Existing users of the old Caesars site or app will find that their accounts have migrated to the new Tropicana Casino site. Despite a different URL and appearance, it’s still the same casino they’ve been using all along.
An FAQ on the new site makes it clear that there’s absolutely nothing players need to do and that nothing of importance has changed. Account balances, active bonuses, and even Caesars Rewards membership and status have all carried over.
In other words, it’s a purely cosmetic change. It’s an important one, however, if only because it clears up a source of confusion. Caesars launched a new product in Pennsylvania last August: Caesars Sportsbook & Casino.
So, for about eight months, Pennsylvania had two separate products bearing the Caesars name. Naturally, one of them needed to rebrand.
Why Caesars Launched a New Product and Rebranded the Original
It’s natural to wonder why Caesars launched a second product to begin with, creating the need for all this confusion. The answer lies in a series of business details and strategic pivots.
It all began when Caesars acquired the US operations of British bookmaker William Hill in 2021. Thanks to its retail presence in New Jersey, Caesars had been one of the first entrants to that state’s online casino market. However, as sports betting grew explosively across the US, Caesars needed a solid online sportsbook platform, and the easiest way to go about that was to acquire one.
However, although William Hill apps included casino games, they’re not that company’s focus. Caesars Online users not interested in sports betting might not have appreciated the change. So, rather than force everyone onto the new platform, Caesars decided to find a way to keep both products.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, a separate business deal by Bally’s created unexpected problems for Tropicana, another brand owned by Caesars. To develop its own online capabilities, Bally’s had acquired Gamesys, a tech provider that had been supplying the Tropicana and Virgin brands.
Virgin Online Casino simply moved over to the Bally’s license to continue using the Gamesys platform. However, Tropicana needed new technology.
Seeing two problems with a common solution, Caesars moved Tropicana users to its old casino site, which rebranded with the Tropicana name. It decided to take a similar approach in Pennsylvania, the only other state where it had been operating the older online casino product.
Caesars Sportsbook & Casino also operates in Michigan and West Virginia, but the old Caesars Online product never existed in either of those states.
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