A Touchdown for Legalized Betting!

Football is back and that means a new season for sportsbooks, too. With eight new states having entered the arena of legalized sports betting in 2019, it should make for an interesting year given the entry into thriving sports towns such as Philadelphia and Indianapolis. To date, 13 U.S. states have legalized sports betting, which has more than doubled over the past year. Illinois, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Tennessee are also getting close to legalization, each with laws in place.

Sports betting comes in many shapes and sizes. Some states only allow for wagers to be made in-person, whereas other states have more options such as online and mobile platforms. Below are those states in which legal bets can be placed along with their betting methods.    

It’s no surprise, then, that with the rise of legal sports betting there has also been an uptick in the development of U.S. sports betting mobile operators. Platforms such as FanDuel Sportsbook and DraftKings are household names in the industry, but there are newcomers far and wide. PointsBet, an Australian-based company, has recently entered the New Jersey market, soon to be followed by theScore, a Canadian firm that will launch its New Jersey sports betting app in the fall of 2019.

Lastly, Barstool Sports completed a soft launch of its barstoolbets.com last week, creating a site that combines gambling content and daily live betting all in one place. It’s an interesting gamble for a publishing site, as it’s an extension of their coverage of sports betting. In the past readers, would go to Barstool and other publisher sites to read content, but then go elsewhere to place bets.   This change in mobile betting and the types of operators could continue to create new revenue streams.

Sports betting continues to be an intriguing investment option for companies and could be akin to the investment interest in cannabis companies as its becomes legal across states.