THIS WEEK IN SPORTS BETTING NEWS – OCTOBER 1ST, 2021

Chris Altman Sports Betting Expert

5 minute read

CONNECTICUT SPORTS BETTING TO LAUNCH NEXT WEEK

Connecticut went live Thursday with in-person sports betting at a Mohegan Sun retail location. FanDuel is the operator in charge of the book, and it’s expected that betting will go online on October 7th as planned.

Connecticut was looking towards the finish line this fall, after the US Department of the Interior approved proposed changes to CT’s tribal compact. September 15th saw the publication of said changes in the US’s Federal Register, which officially means that they are law.

Changes to tribal compacts are common when states are attempting to legalize online sports betting, as most of the legalized gambling in this country falls under the jurisdiction of tribal authority. Now that changes have been approved, the way is clear for CT to start offering both online and in-person betting.

Three main entities will be the license holders in Connecticut: namely, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, the Mohegan tribe, and the Connecticut Lottery, to partner with DraftKings, FanDuel, and PlaySugarHouse (Rush Street) respectively.

As stated, FanDuel is already live for retail (also known as in-person, also called “brick and mortar”) sports betting. DraftKings is expected to go live with retail on the 4th, and all platforms are expected to be online by the 7th.

Therefore, by the end of next week, online betting will be fully legal in CT. Betting has not yet gone live in neighboring states New York and Massachusetts, but both are also attempting to legalize sports betting ASAP.

CFL ENJOYS WINDFALL FROM CANADA’S NEWLY EXPANDED SPORTS BETTING LAW

Canada’s national football league is finally recouping some of the funds lost to the 2020 cancellation of the season. It’s reported that the CFL lost upwards of C$80 million dollars last year due to the cancellation, but now with the help of legalized sports betting, the league is bouncing back.

Says league commissioner Randy Ambrosie:

“This may be one of the single biggest opportunities that the Canadian Football League has ever faced and it couldn’t happen at a better time. We’ve gone through a very challenging environment with the COVID pandemic, we see (legalized sports betting) as a recipe for a quicker recovery as we come out of it.”

Edmonton Elks president and CEO Chris Presson also thinks that legalized betting will bring more interest to the league as a whole, as more people see betting as a safe, legal pastime. As it stands in mid-late 2021, the CFL doesn’t really bring in viewer numbers that are anywhere comparable to the NFL, but many, including Presson, anticipate the CFL to grow in popularity as betting becomes more prominent in Canada.

We’ll keep you up-to-date as the situation develops in Canada. The legal sports betting market is sure to explode as provinces go online with their own betting packages, so we’re expecting revenues to pour in not only for the CFL but for Canada at large.

OHIO LEGISLATURE CONTINUES TO DEBATE SPORTS BETTING

The situation drags on in Ohio, a state that’s been trying to launch legal sports betting for some time now- and it looks like nothing is going to be finalized in 2021.

As the conversation regarding legal bets continued, it became clear that an impasse between the Ohio House and Senate was going to seriously thwart attempts to get sports betting on the books. To remedy this, the Senate proposed an amended version of the bill, tacked on to a veteran ID card bill.

The amended version of the bill was rejected in June, but the Senate continues to extend requests for, at the very least, a discussion with House representatives about how to legalize betting in the Buckeye State.

Now that we’re nearing the end of the third quarter of 2021, however, discussions in Ohio have shifted from sports betting and other concerns to a major focus on redistricting. Ohio in particular is known to have a serious problem with gerrymandering: the process of re-zoning districts to give a political party an unfair advantage. It seems like sports betting, which the Senate hoped to launch by April 2022, will not get its day on the floor.

Since the conversation has shifted completely from betting to redistricting and the session ends in December, we’re not likely to see that April 2022 launch come to fruition, if any sports betting package can get consideration and move on to governor approval.

The Buckeye State remains a tough nut to crack. If there are any developments before the end of the year, you’ll find out right here on VegasInsider, but the lack of meaningful conversation for months now means that there isn’t much hope for an April 2022 launch.

LOUISIANA SPORTS BETTING WILL LAUNCH RETAIL FIRST

Last November, sports betting was put on the forefront in the Pelican State, as voters opted by a sizable majority to legalize the practice. It took some time for the LA legislature to put together a reasonable package and elect staff to oversee the practice. Now, as of October 2021, Louisiana is expected to have fully-fledged online and in-person betting, with in-person (or “retail”) sportsbooks to go live shortly.

Sports betting was initially scheduled to start in mid-September, as most states going live with legal betting this year wanted to meet the deadline set by the start of the NFL season. NFL wagering is the biggest moneymaker in the US, and therefore, the start of the season set a soft target for legislators to launch legal sports bets. That didn’t happen in Louisiana, as Hurricane Ida shifted the attention towards repair and recovery efforts.

Current chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, Ronnie Johns, saw October 1st (today) as the expected launch target. Obviously, Hurricane Ida was a major issue to handle that bumped sports betting down the calendar- Johns announced this week that he expects bets to go live in Louisiana in two weeks- sometime around the week of October 11.

Written by Chris Altman, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can read more about our author’s expertise here.

Chris Altman

Chris Altman is a sports betting writer and content expert with almost a decade of experience. He's covered everything, but his current focus is on reviewing sportsbooks and online casinos and keeping tabs on sports betting legislation. Chris has been with VegasInsider since 2019 and has freelanced in the sports betting content industry for years. More from Chris Altman