US Sports Betting Outlook – What States Or Sportsbooks Are Coming In 2023
Legal sports betting continues to expand in the United States. Ohio joined the wave at midnight on New Years Eve, opening up both retail and online sports betting in a massive statewide rollout. That comes on the heels of Kansas launching everything just before football season and Maryland adding legal online wagering in late November. All told 19 states now have full online wagering with multiple choices for bettors, while four others allow it, but with limited options. Nine more states have legalized in-person wagering only.
What comes next on the legalization front? Two states have passed legislation and are working on licensing sportsbooks and/or timing of a launch.
Massachusetts
The Bay State is ready to go. Retail sportsbooks can open up the windows on January 31st, while online sportsbooks will launch soon after at a so-far undefined date. The state has authorized 15 total sports betting licenses. Eight of those are tied to a land-based casino or racetrack, while the other seven will go to the national online sportsbooks.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commision has officially licensed Barstool, BetMGM, Caesars, and WynnBet so far, with FanDuel looking imminent and DraftKings not far behind. New customers using the best BetMGM bonus code can take advantage of their generous welcome bonus. To access their first bet, free bet insurance, just sign up, make a deposit, and place a wager. If the bet hits, cash the winnings. If the bet loses, BetMGM will replenish your account with free bets up to the amount of the first bet, with a maximum of $1000.
State residents may not wager on in-state college teams, except when those teams are playing in tournaments.
Maine
In early May 2022, Gov. Janet Mills signed LD 585, officially legalizing sports betting. The law allows for four online, and ten retail sportsbooks. Potential online sportsbooks must each partner with one of Maine’s four official tribes. Retail sportsbooks can operate at commercial race tracks, casinos and Off Track Betting locations
The law kicked into effect in August 2022, but the process still drags on. The Maine Gambling Control Unit is tasked with creating the rules around sports betting as well as approvals and licensing. The hope is to get sports betting up and running some time in 2023, but it could certainly drag into 2024.
No other state has crossed the legislative finish line, much less set out on the path of licensing. Sometimes negotiations take place behind closed doors and legislation arrives and passes quickly, but even then there is a lag until residents can actually place wagers. Thus it looks unlikely any state beyond Maine and Massachusetts will see wagering begin any time before late 2023. These states are the most likely to perhaps be the next to make good progress in 2023.
Minnesota
Rep Zack Stephenson (D) introduced a sports betting bill in 2022 that passed the Minnesota House. It would have legalized wagering through the 11 official tribes that operate casinos in the state. Tribes in many states, Minnesota included, often balk at sports betting as it dilutes the exclusivity of the casino gambling that they alone operate. In Minnesota they did get behind this bill as it extended that exclusivity to sports betting. The Minnesota Senate however stripped out the exclusivity when they took up the bill, thus causing an impasse that went unresolved.
Stephenson plans to introduce legislation again in 2023. Democrats now control the state Senate, so a revised bill could theoretically get across the finish line. Many states have a model where online sportsbooks must partner with in-state operators. That could work here.
Missouri
Perhaps no state sees quite the revenue drain of Missouri. The two biggest cities and metro areas, Kansas City and St Louis, border on Kansas and Illinois respectively, two states that have legalized sports betting. The DraftKings sportsbook in East St Louis, looms just across the Mississippi River.
Arkansas. Iowa and Tennessee legalize it as well, meaning that Missouri is virtually surrounded by states where betting is allowed.
Promising sports betting legislation has popped up and withered away over the past few years in Missouri. Three sports betting bills are expected to hit the legislatures in 2023, the first of which, HB 556, has already arrived. A big roadblock in the Show Me State is tying video gaming terminals to sports betting. The pending bills may seek to separate the two. The most optimistic case is for a launch sometime in 2024.
North Carolina
Sports betting is actually legal in North Carolina, albeit on a very limited scale. Wagers are allowed at sportsbooks at two tribal casinos located in the western part of the state and not close to any major population centers.
Online sports betting legislation that would have legalized up to 12 sportsbooks passed the North Carolina Senate in 2022 but ran into resistance in the House and could not pass before the session for the year ended in early August.
They came close, and will try again in 2023. Any bill that does pass and get signed by Gov Roy Cooper would then set off a long approval process. Thus Tar Heel state residents can not expect to start online wagering before mid 2024 at the earliest.
The Big Elephants outside the room
California, Texas and Florida are the three most populous states in the union and none have legalized sports betting in any form. Florida approved and launched sports betting on a very limited basis in 2021 in an agreement with the Seminole tribe, then saw it struck down in court. It is now frozen and bogged down in litigation with no particular re-launch date on the horizon.
Texas talks about sports betting legislation every year, but never makes real progress. There is lobbying going on, but no prominent legislation is set to hit any time soon.
California had two separate sports betting propositions up for vote in November 2022. Both went down in flames by wide margins. Tribes run all casino gambling in the state and do not have much incentive to step aside for sports betting. Barring some sort of agreement between the state, online operators, and the tribes, there is little hope that much changes in 2023. The most optimistic case is that something gets hashed out in a few years.
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