The Sports Betting Industry One Year After The PASPA Repeal

• Since PASPA’s repeal, $8 billion has been wagered on sporting events.
• Eight states have operational sportsbooks, with another nine moving towards a launch date.
• Thirty-five partnership deals have been made between gaming companies and the professional sports leagues and teams.

Tallahassee, Fla. – It has officially been one year since PASPA was repealed after a longstanding legal battle.

PASPA was the federal law that banned all but four states from operating sportsbooks within their region. The State of New Jersey brought an appeal to the Supreme Court, who decided in a 6-3 vote that the law was unconstitutional.

Since then, the legal sports betting industry has soared to new heights, much quicker than anticipated.

A total of 17 states (Washington D.C. included) have seen legislators agree on sports betting laws – eight of them are up and running, seven of them are pending a launch, and two of them are awaiting their governor’s approval.

But this is where it all begins. There have been 35 sports betting partnership deals between leagues, teams, and gaming companies. Almost $8 billion has been wagered on sports since PASPA was overturned. States have received $55 million in tax revenue, helping to fund various state projects and essential programs over the past year.

In the first quarter of 2019, over $3 billion has been wagered on sporting events within the eight regulated states: Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and New Mexico. The sportsbooks have kept $175 million of that handle, where a total of $20.5 million has been contributed to the states.

New Jersey has given Nevada a run for their money as the top gambling state, as they have taken in a combined $2.6 billion in action. Mississippi and Pennsylvania are in the next tier, who both have eclipsed a total of $100 million wagered in the first quarter of 2019.

As for the states pending a launch – Arkansas, New York, Washington D.C., Virginia, Montana, Indiana, and Iowa – they will certainly bolster the legal sports betting market. These states have different timelines for when their launch will occur; however, the majority are expecting it to happen before the start of the NFL season.

Tennessee and Colorado wait in the wing to join the group above, as they only need approval from the governor… or in Tennessee’s case, the governor’s veto deadline to pass.

This more than likely will not be the end for legalization in 2019. Other states such as Louisiana, New Hampshire, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Connecticut have revved up legislative action before their session adjournment dates.

Moving forward, the sports betting industry has no more worries about federal government oversight, except in the case of the Interstate Wire Act.

This law states that no sportsbook shall accept gambling action from a person who is not physically located in their state. This comes down to the books requiring bettors to be present in the facility or by using geolocation to track the gamblers for mobile betting.

Multiple states have run into problems with the wording of the law, not being able to fully open up their market. A question of where the servers are located for the mobile betting platforms has even caused states to delay their mobile betting industry launch.

This has blossomed into a larger problem than anticipated, as the power of the mobile betting market supersedes that of in-person betting. In a study performed by The Action Network, 80% of respondents would use an app or website to wager as opposed to only 50% who would rather wager in person.

Whether states will be able to accept wagers from out of state in the future remains unclear; however, there is one thing that is certainly clear.

In a post-PASPA world, legal and mobile sports betting is here to stay and thrive.

News tags: PASPA