Sports Betting Update for Arizona

In a little more than two weeks, the 2021 NFL season will begin. This will be the first NFL season in U.S. history when the residents in more than half the states will be able to legally bet on NFL games through either retail betting outlets, online, or both. This is what American sports bettors have been waiting for most of their lives.

For one state, it’s a race against time to make sure the betting windows will be open by the beginning of the NFL regular season on September 9, 2021. At this point, it looks like everything is going to be ready to go.

As a reminder, the law in Arizona provides for up to 20 sports betting licenses with 10 of them going to Arizona Indian Tribes and the other 10 going to commercial interest, most Arizona professional sports franchises. In recent weeks, it has been a mad scramble among prospective licensees to partner up with top U.S. bookmakers.

With a little more than two weeks to go until the NFL season starts with the Dallas Cowboys facing the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Bucs, only the Arizona Coyotes have not yet signed sports betting partnership deal. All the other teams and prospective licensed Indian Tribes are ready to go. Here is the current list of licensees and their partnered bookmakers:

• DraftKings Sportsbook AZ – TPC Scottsdale (PGA)
  
• Caesars Sports AZ – Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks)
  
• WynnBet Arizona – Apache Gold, Apache Sky casinos (San Carlos Apache Tribe)
  
• Unibet Sportsbook AZ – Paradise Casino (Fort Yuma – Quechan Tribe)
  
• MaximBet – White Mountain Apache Tribe
  
• Bally Bet AZ – Footprint Center (Phoenix Mercury)
  
• PointsBet Arizona – Cliff Castle Casino (Yavapai-Apache Nation)
  
• TwinSpires – Mazatzal Hotel & Casino (Tonto Apache Tribe)
  
• BetMGM – Gila River Hotels & Casinos (Gila River Nation Community; Arizona Cardinals)
  
• Barstool Sportsbook AZ – Phoenix Raceway (NASCAR)
  
• FanDuel AZ – Footprint Center
  

To be clear, the Arizona Department of Gaming has not approved any licenses. However, these partnership deals have been signed and applications have been submitted. All prospective licensees are awaiting approval this week. Once the thumbs up is given, the sports betting windows should be open for business.

Note: A total of 15 Indian Tribes have submitted an application for a sports betting license. They have each paid the $750,000 application fee and are prepared to pay the $150,000 annual license fee. With only 10 available licenses, it will be interesting to see what the Gaming Commission will do. It is possible that more licenses could become available if fewer than 10 commercial interests were to receive licenses.

At this point, it looks like all prospective licensees have made clear they intend on having retail sportsbooks or betting kiosks. For the professional sports teams, those facilities will have to be directly outside the stadiums or arenas. The Indian Tribes have already built sportsbooks inside their casinos, making them ready to go in time for the Arizona Cardinals to play the Tennessee Titans on September 12, 2021.