In addition to the five states where legal sports wagering is up and running, another four to eight will “probably be accepting bets by the coming football season,” Jake Williams, Sportradar Group’s vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, told Reuters in an interview after a conference co-sponsored by the company.
Within 24 months, there could be a total of 24 states offering legal sports betting, Williams said.
Fans can now wager legally on sporting events in New Jersey, West Virginia and Mississippi, as well as Nevada and Delaware, which were grandfathered into the 1992 law banning the activity in the rest of the country.
Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are expected to roll out live betting soon, and one tribal casino in New Mexico has begun operating a sportsbook without the need for state legislation.
The casino industry, bookmakers and sport leagues think the states that could close in on legislation or new regulations by the end of 2019 include Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oregon and others. Michigan, which has both tribal and commercial casinos, as well as a lottery, could be among those states.
Source: GMB / Reuters
