Chicago Sports Stadiums Approved for Sportsbooks

In Arizona and Washington D.C., legal sports betting is tied closely to stadium venues where professional sports teams play. It makes perfect sense for this to happen given the fact that sports fans are also the ones who are most likely to wager on sports.

With one piece of legislation, major sports venues in the "Windy City" of Chicago will now be permitted to have retail sports betting operations tied to their facilities. The City Council’s Committee on Zoning and License has formally approved a new city ordinance that allows for Chicago sports stadiums to build and run retail sportsbooks.

This new ordinance was the brainchild of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot‘s who was looking for the opportunity to, as she said, "actively seek to achieve racial, ethnic, and geographic diversity when issuing primary sports licenses.” It is her hope that more women and monitors will use this as an opportunity in the future to get involved in Illinois' thriving sports betting community.

There were concerns among some city council members that the approval of stadium sportsbooks would detract from the development of a new casino facility in close proximity to the city. Despite the protests of these council members, the new city ordinance passed by a vote of 19-7.

First Up: Wrigley Field

In all, there could eventually be stadium sportsbooks in five stadiums. The list includes Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox), Soldier Field (Chicago Bears), United Center (Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls), Wintrust Arena (Chicago Sky).

At this point, Wintrust Stadium is not affected by the new city ordinance, meaning the stadium has not yet been approved for a retail sportsbook. At issue is the fact that this facility's seating capacity falls well below the 17,000 seat standard set by the new law. However, specific legislation is working its way through Congress to address this issue.

First up to open a retail sportsbook could well be Wrigley Field. In anticipation of this new city ordinance passing, Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts had already struck a deal with DraftKings to run the retail sportsbook. How soon could Wrigley have a sportsbook? According to Ricketts to the City Council earlier this year:

“With your approval of this ordinance, construction would begin immediately with the aim of opening a restaurant with a sportsbook in time for the 2023 season.”

As for the other city stadiums, other sports betting deals have already been inked. So far, the Chicago Bears have signed sports betting partnership agreement with Rush Street Interactive NJ (BetRivers Sportsbook) while the Chicago Bulls are contractually aligned with Betway. The other teams and stadiums are still working on deals.

It's noteworthy that online/mobile sports betting in Illinois haa been moving along very well, a clear indication that the people of Chicago will be supportive of retail stadium sportsbooks. Here is a list of mobile operators already taking sports bets in Illinois: FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, Barstool, BetRivers, and PointsBet.