Circa Sports, Olympia Gaming to open Reno-Sparks' first casino in 26 years

May 16, 2022

Circa Sports is partnering with Legends Bay Casino -the company known as the owner of Olympia Gaming- to establish the new casino in the Reno-Sparks area, the two cities located in northern Nevada.

The facility is scheduled to open around the summer of 2022 at the Legends at Sparks Marina along Interstate 80.

As reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal, Circa Sports -which is dubbed as the world’s largest sportsbook operator based in Las Vegas- will have its numerous sports betting services immersed in the new casino facility of Reno-Sparks, which is currently under the construction phase.

According to a recent photograph published by The Associated Press, a construction worker was seen working on the exterior of the Legends Bay Casino in Sparks, Nevada on Friday, May 13, 2022. Once the construction is done, the site is said to be the first casino built in Reno-Sparks in more than a quarter-century.

Aside from the sportsbook provided by Circa Sports, the 80,000-square-foot (7,432-square-meter) casino will also provide table games, slot machines, video poker as well as multiple restaurants.

“We are thrilled to partner with Olympia Gaming to introduce our brand to a new part of the state,” said Derek Stevens, Circa Sports CEO.

“We look forward to bringing an incredible sportsbook to the property,” he continued.

Circa Sports, Olympia's new partnership

Further in his statement, Derek Stevens said of the new partnership with Olympia in Sparks as the “icing on the cake.”

“Legends Bay is the first ground-up casino in the Reno-Sparks area to be built in 30-plus years,” Stevens said to the Gazette Journal. “So we loved the opportunity to put our first Northern Nevada Circa Sports retail location in this ... property.”

Since it was established in 2019, Circa Sports was first launched within the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The establishment is also owned by Stevens.

The company then moved forward by expanding southward to several casinos in Nevada. During that period, Circa Sports also opened up mobile betting services in the states of Colorado and Iowa.

Later in 2020, the sportsbook ran a new operation under Stevens’ Circa Resort & Casino, which has been aiming to be the largest sportsbook in the world.

Olympia's new chapter

Legends Bay Casino is paving the way for the newest chapter of Olympia since the company was established in 2007. The company originally envisioned its project as a hotel-casino and experienced hard times leading up to a temporary halt due to unexpected economic headwinds.

The hotel-casino concept has since been abandoned in favor of a phased approach following the Great Recession in 2008, the first event which struck pretty badly the Reno-Sparks’ real estate and construction.

The Olympia’s first phase consisted of the construction of two hotels, a 102-room Hampton Inn & Suites, and a 104-room Residence Inn by Marriott. Both projects began the construction in 2017 and have since operated.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 also gave a significant shockwave to Olympia’s business as the entire state of Nevada was put under lockdown at the time.

Eventually, they have arrived at the next phase of their agenda which is the Legends Bay Casino itself. The project has since broken ground in 2021.

“We initially started the planning in 2007, so watching the designs and concepts transform, evolve, and go from paper to reality is a great accomplishment for the entire team involved with the project,” said DeCourcy Graham, Olympia Gaming’s chief operating officer.

Jake
Jake Williams
Jake Williams is a sports gambling expert. He's been writing in the sports betting and DFS industry for over a decade. He specializes in MLB and NBA, along with College Basketball and College Football.