Mobile Sports Betting Goes Live in New York

It was over two years in the making. It serves as a potential blow to the mobile sports betting community in New Jersey. Yes, mobile sports betting has officially gone live in the state of New York.

It’s important to note that New Yorkers have had access to retail sportsbooks for going on three years. Unfortunately, that access was confined to sportsbooks located in four retail casinos in upstate New York. It was far from convenient for sports bettors in New York City, resulting in hundreds of thousands of sports bettors driving to New Jersey for their sports betting activities. Those days should be long gone.

On Saturday, January 8, 2022, the first legal mobile sports bets were accepted in the state. The excitement was palpable as a result of the pent-up demand for such gambling services. To date, four of the top online bookmakers in the U.S. have received sports betting licenses from the New York Gambling Commission. That list includes Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Rush Street Interactive (BetRivers brand). Another five online bookmakers are expected to get the green light in the coming weeks.

As a reminder, two groups with a total of nine top online bookmakers were approved to create the sports betting infrastructure in New York. Kambi snd Fanduel were the leaders of these two groups.

Each of the bookmakers in these groups will be required to split its gross sports betting revenue with the state to the tune of 51%. That is by far the most significant amount that online bookmakers will have to pay to any state as either taxes or revenue sharing. With that said, this is New York. Under the right circumstances, it’s quite possible New York will surpass current industry leaders Nevada and New Jersey in sports betting handle.

New York Beats Deadline Expectation

As recently as early December, state officials were hoping New York’s mobile sports betting operators would be ready to go by the Super Bowl in February. The best-case scenario was assumed to be having everything in place by the time the NFC and AFC championship games rolled around. To everyone’s credit, they smashed those goals.

The NFL regular season just came to an end, and New York sports bettors were able to wager on the last games of the regular season. Now, they will be in a position to place wagers all throughout the playoffs. It’s a shame the New York Giants and New York Jets are nowhere to be found, but the New England Patriots are in the hunt and figure to draw a lot of betting interest.

As a reminder, New York sports bettors a free to choose any of the available licensed online sports betting operators. Registered bettors must be 21 years of age or older to place online bets. Also, bettors are required by state law to be physically present in the state when they place their online wagers. Bookmakers will be using geo-tracking software to confirm the location of their bettors.