Digital Wager Wire highlights the most significant events affecting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industries each week throughout the year.
Feds Discuss Regulating Sports Betting
In the wake of the gambling scandal that saw former NBA star Chauncey Billups and current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier arrested, momentum has been reignited for the federal government to regulate sports betting and iGaming throughout the United States.
In case you missed it, Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were charged in separate indictments.
The former was accused of participating in a mob-rigged poker game, while the latter was charged with a federal sports betting and money laundering case. Prosecutors have charged Rozier with using non-public information regarding NBA players and their injuries to place illegal wagers.
The NBA placed both Billups and Rozier on immediate leave following their arrests. FBI Director Kash Patel described the first case as a “wide-sweeping criminal enterprise” that employed NBA stars to attend rigged poker games orchestrated by New York mobsters.
“This is an illegal gambling and rigging operation that spanned the course of years,” Patel said. “This fraud is historic in its scheme.” The reaction by lawmakers was predictable, with many now getting on board with previous legislation to regulate sports betting.
Representative Paul Tonko and Senator Richard Blumenthal had been cosponsors of the Supporting Affordability & Fairness with Every Bet Act, or SAFE Bet Act, which never gained legislative traction. State regulators have pushed back on the feds regulating their industries, stating they have done all the due diligence necessary to ensure a safe betting environment for their customers.
But the more pressing concern is not the games themselves but the player proposition bets that allow players to determine the outcomes if they are wont to do so.
Whether the impetus for federal regulation regarding sports betting will continue is still very much in question, but Digital Wager Wire will be monitoring the story and reporting back with any new information.
Missouri Prepares for Launch
The Show Me State will launch its sports betting industry on December 1st after a ponderous journey that hit a brick wall in the state legislature, only to see it resurrected by a political action committee (PAC), Winning for Missouri Education, sponsored by the state’s six sports franchises.
The PAC circumvented the gridlocked legislature and eventually got the sports betting question on last November’s ballot.
Missourians voted to approve it by the thinnest of margins, and now the time has nearly arrived for the industry to launch. The Missouri Gaming Commission has now approved seven temporary tethered mobile sports betting licenses to FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, ESPN BET, Fanatics, bet365, and Underdog.
Circa Sports and DraftKings were awarded the state’s two untethered licenses, meaning they do not have to seek a partner—and share revenues—to gain market access.
Industry suppliers BMM Testlabs, Integrity Compliance 360, International Betting Integrity Association, Genius Sports, GeoComply, and GLI also received temporary licenses.
Moreover, eight of the state’s 13 casinos have plans to open retail sportsbooks, including Fanatics-branded books at Boyd Gaming’s two Ameristar properties; a BetMGM book at Century Casino Cape Girardeau; Caesars books at Horseshoe St. Louis and Harrah’s Kansas City; and ESPN BET books at its parent company PENN Entertainment’s three Missouri casinos, including Hollywood St. Louis, Argosy Kansas City, and River City.
