Arizona Sports Betting Bill, Now Sent To Governor’s Desk

• The Arizona Legislature has passed House Bill 2772 in both chambers to regulate mobile and retail sportsbooks statewide.
• The Senate was the final piece of the puzzle to approve regulated sports gaming in Arizona where Governor Doug Ducey is expected to sign the measure as law next week.
• Sportsbooks are slated to go live in the Grand Canyon State by the beginning of the 2021 NFL season.

PHOENIX – On Monday, the Arizona Senate passed a proposal for regulated sports wagering which officially pushed the bill out of the legislature and onto the desk of Governor Doug Ducey. House Bill 2772 was greenlit to move forward by a vote of 23-6 in the Senate. With the passage of this measure, Tribal Gaming Compacts in the state will now go on to change and expand for the addition of sports betting.

House Bill 2772 Details As Law

House Bill 2772 is the first in the country to have both tribal sports betting and commercial sports betting given an even playing field at 50/50 of the industry. Tribes and professional sports teams along with other gaming operators will divvy up the licenses for mobile sportsbooks equally. Having a mobile license allows operators to open retail venues as well.

Under the new law, there will be ten licenses for tribal establishments and ten for facilities like professional sports stadiums. If stadiums like Chase Field for the Arizona Diamondbacks open up a sports betting venue, Arizona would be one in a handful of states to launch such a location in the U.S.

At the moment, Washington, DC, Illinois, and Virginia are the only other places in the country that have laws allowing for professional league venue sportsbooks.

Outside of the brick-and-mortar sportsbook option, the main focus of the bill was mobile sports betting platforms. DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM are expected to be among the names seen for mobile applications in Arizona.

While there are licensing caps for each side of the regulated sports wagering market in the state, there is also some leeway in terms of how much one mobile license can do. For example, there are over twenty tribes in Arizona but some have multiple gaming locations. They could open up a retail sportsbook at every one of their locations with just one mobile license.

Retail sportsbooks in Arizona are eligible to open when a business has a license for a mobile platform. Other facilities that could receive licensure are OTB and race tracks under the new law. An 8% tax on all revenue made from the market will be implemented on both sides of the industry. It is expected that a minimum of $12.3 million will be seen in profit for Arizona each year at that set rate from sports betting.

Now What?

After the Senate passed House Bill 2772, both the Governor and State Representative Jeff Weninger, the sponsor of the bill, tweeted their excitement for Arizonans after months of not knowing which way the proposal would go.

What was once labeled as an emergency measure in Arizona is now expected to be signed by Governor Doug Ducey next week. In doing so, the industry will be able to go live at the beginning of the 2021 NFL season.

News tags: Arizona | Arizona Diamondbacks | Arizona Legislature | Arizona Senate | BetMGM | Chase Field | Doug Ducey | DraftKings | FanDuel | House Bill 2772 | Jeff Weninger | NFL