Mac Simpson, of Freeport, places a bet at a kiosk at Oddfellahs in Portland. The state’s first in-person sports betting parlor opened Friday.
Duane Bernier saw sports betting go live last year and immediately thought: What about in-person sportsbooks?
“I was very patiently waiting for sports betting to open up,” said Bernier, 50, a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier from Westbrook. “Honestly, it was disappointing when it passed, and it opened, that Oxford (Plains Casino) didn’t have a sportsbook. Part of the appeal for me, anyway, was to be in person.”
Bernier, other sports fans and betting enthusiasts now have their spot. More than 10 months after sports betting began in Maine, the state made its first step into the retail market when Oddfellahs, a sports bar partnered with Caesars Sportsbook to conduct sports gambling, opened Friday afternoon at 55 Market St. in Portland, the former location of The Big Easy music club.
“I just got out of work, I had to come opening day. I didn’t even want to place a bet, I just wanted to poke my head in the door,” Bernier said. “I’m excited that it’s in person. We needed that.”
Mayor Mark Dion placed the first bet at 2:20 p.m. when he made a $20 wager on Sunday’s action. After being walked through the slate of games by gaming supervisor Andrew Topham, Dion bet on the Los Angeles Chargers – his daughter Ashley’s favorite team – to beat the Carolina Panthers.
“I hope it’s the ceremonial first win,” Dion said.
The mayor believes the bar will be a boost for Portland.
Ticket in hand, Portland Mayor Mark Dion chats with members of the media after placing the first bet on opening day at Oddfellahs in Portland on Friday.
“I think this adds a certain new dimension to coming into the Old Port. I hope it attracts sports enthusiasts who want to fully participate in supporting their team,” he said. “It stimulates participation in the Old Port district. They’re going to come in here, they make their wager, they’ll consume beverages, they’ll go on to other restaurants and have a full evening.
“For many people, gambling is a fun experience. They’re not going in there to make a wage.”
That’s also the hope for Michael Cianchette, the bar owner who also oversees harness racing at the Cumberland Fairgrounds, which helped him land the license he needed to hold wagering at Oddfellahs. Cianchette said he applied for and received the license in August.
“This is a great opportunity to bring people into that (betting) ecosystem and hopefully encourage more responsible gaming from a social aspect, rather than necessarily doing it from their homes and couches,” he said. “It offers a sports bar in Portland, which is always a great venue for people to go and enjoy the camaraderie that comes with watching a game.
“But on the gaming side, it offers the ability to … be able to throw a couple of dollars down on a game without going through the whole process of setting up online accounts.”
Cianchette said Caesars’ history of supporting harness racing made the company an ideal choice as a partner. He declined to reveal the bar’s construction cost.
The first customers who entered the 3,000-square-foot venue were met with a full bar, kitchen, 35 television screens on all walls and 85 seats. There are four kiosks for betting on games, and the bar also employs four gaming supervisors to help anyone make their wagers.
“There are places in Portland where you can catch games, but there’s no place that’s as sports-focused as we are here,” gaming manager Gunner LaCour said. “We will have any game, every game, that people want to watch.”
Michael Cianchette, facing the camera, owner of Oddfellahs, chats with customers at the state’s first in-person sports betting parlor that opened Friday.
The road to opening wasn’t always smooth. Cianchette said in October 2023 that he was hoping to open at the start of the new year, but that fulfilling licensing requirements, solidifying a location, hiring staff and finding a partner in Caesars pushed the timeline back.
“It was making sure we thought everything through to be able to operate well,” he said. “It was (more) important for us to do it correctly than to do it quickly.”
Cianchette acknowledged that getting ready for the football season added an incentive.
“Earlier would have been better,” he said. “At the same time, this is when people are really interested.”
Soon after the mayor’s bet, customers began making their way in. One was Mac Simpson, a 39-year-old broker from Freeport who took $200 he made on a winning bet in Thursday’s Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins football game and turned it into a five-way parlay for Sunday (bets on five different players to all score touchdowns).
“It adds another dimension to watching sports,” Simpson said. “I honestly think in-person betting is more healthy, social, more entertaining, more fun to be there with a group of friends than sitting by yourself, placing bets on a phone. It doesn’t feel real when you’re pressing a button digitally. It feels real when you’re taking cash and putting it into a machine or giving it to a guy.”
Bernier, the letter carrier from Westbrook, said the state needed that option.
“When they passed it, I did download the app, I gambled for maybe a month or two. … But the in-person’s missing,” he said. “Sitting on your couch and betting is convenient, it’s fun, it’s easy. But to be able to come out … it’s the in-person thing that’s attractive.”
Some in the city have concerns regarding sports betting’s arrival. City Councilor Kate Sykes voted against Oddfellahs’ request for a liquor license, hoping to slow the bar’s arrival and give Portland more time to set up rules and limitations regarding gambling within the city.
Sykes, who joined the council in November, said statistics show a trend between male gamblers in their 20s and diminished credit scores. She also expressed concern about the parlor’s proximity to schools and said that the bar might not boost businesses as well as hoped.
Portland City Councilor Kate Sykes Photo courtesy of Kate Sykes
“(Casinos) are very inward-facing businesses, meaning that they tend to draw people in and never spit them back out again. It can have a detrimental effect on area businesses,” she said. “Whether that’s true with sports betting parlors, we don’t know. They’re new. But these are all considerations that I think impact the fabric of the market, and could negatively affect other bars in the area, other businesses in the area.”
Sykes said that she’s not against gambling, but is more concerned with Portland’s readiness for a betting establishment, saying that the city is “behind the eight ball.”
“I was shocked that we didn’t have an ordinance, and that we weren’t prepared for this,” she said. “Portland, of course, is going to be one of the first cities in Maine to have one of these, and that may be a great thing. But it also may require a little bit more thought and consideration around where they go and other things.”