Brett Smiley, Sportshandle
The fastest legal expansion of gambling in U.S. history, allowing sports betting both online and in the flesh in nearly three dozen states over a five-year period coinciding with a global pandemic, has left precious little time for reflection.
Colorado’s launch of mobile sportsbooks in May 2020 proved that even if the world is left with little more than table tennis and Korean baseball, people will bet, and some will even stay up to watch. The world kept turning, and expansion may even have been accelerated by the rapid spread of the respiratory virus. The handle and revenue numbers have been staggering and the pace relentless.
Of course, this journey traces back to New Jersey and the architects of resistance to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, the 1992 federal law that confined legal sports betting in the U.S. mainly to Nevada. The victorious legal challenge, Christie v. NCAA, which became Murphy v. NCAA when New Jersey’s governor’s mansion changed occupants, produced the historic ruling on May 14, 2018. Weeks later, sportsbooks in Delaware and New Jersey saw ribbons cut and tickets written.
Sports Handle recently conducted interviews with more than 20 figures across the U.S. sports betting landscape, including key lawmakers, regulators and policy experts, investors, sportsbook executives, media personalities, oddsmakers, and more. Their comments (which have been lightly edited for clarity) trace the first five years of legal sports betting in the U.S. while addressing the many concerns and quandaries generated in that span.
Rest is here…
