GamblingCompliance: Race to Capitalize on U.S. Sports Betting Set to Continue in 2019

As many as 33 states are expected to consider bills to regulate sports wagering during their 2019 legislative sessions, the '2019 U.S. Sports Betting Outlook' report predicts. Of those, between six and 13 states are tipped to pass legislation, while other states are expected to move forward this year under the terms of laws already on the statute books.

Leading the pack of states most likely to pass bills or adopt implementing regulations are New York, Michigan, Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky and Connecticut, plus the District of Columbia. Other key states to watch include Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio, but the odds remain stacked against any federal legislation in Congress that might halt the spread of new enabling laws.

Still, getting bills over the goal-line will not prove to be an easy task for state lawmakers.

"Several prominent states will pass bills in 2019, but none of them will find the discussions straightforward or free from lobbying conflict - and lawmakers will invariably find sports betting to be a more complicated issue than they anticipated," said James Kilsby, Managing Director - Americas for GamblingCompliance and an author of the report.

"If the story of 2018 was the running battle between major sports leagues and gaming interests over sports betting policy, then the lobbying field will be even more crowded this year as the needs of state lotteries, Indian tribes and non-casino sports brands come into play in state houses across the country," Kilsby said.

GamblingCompliance's U.S. Sports Betting Tracker, the industry's go-to analysis service, projects legal sports wagering in the U.S. to be worth approximately $648m in revenue* in 2019, versus an estimated $400m in 2018. Total revenues should then grow to $1bn+ in 2020 and could even exceed $2bn if legislative trends follow GamblingCompliance's most optimistic scenario for this year.

Elsewhere, the GamblingCompliance report identifies six common legal and lobbying obstacles that will weigh on state legislative processes. It also highlights key market trends to monitor in 2019.