Sports Betting Legalization Closer in Texas Than California, BetMGM CEO Suggests
Sports betting legalization might be closer in Texas than it is in California, at least in the eyes of BetMGM and its president.
Texas and California remain the 2 terrific untapped markets for legal online sports wagering sites in the United States, and it appears like neither state is poised for any major changes to gambling policy in 2024.
However, for one major sportsbook and online casino operator, BetMGM, the odds of legalization look much better for Texas than they do for California.
"California is not in our near-term design, Texas is," BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt said Wednesday at the NEXT Summit New York City 2024 in Manhattan.
I have actually made it to NEXT Summit New York City 2024 in Manhattan. First panel of the day has to do with predictions for 2025. Betr CEO Joey Levy (whose business simply announced a $15M fundraise at a $375M valuation) states the circulation design for operators will have to change. pic.twitter.com/RUGIbBTRYy
BetMGM was part of the union of operators that tried and stopped working to legalize online sports wagering in California in 2022, so those scars and are still relatively fresh.
In Texas, however, the legalization lobby may have gained another ally with the current multibillion-dollar purchase of a controlling stake in the NBA's Dallas Mavericks by the households behind gambling establishment operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.
. The Texas legislature will not have another routine session till 2025, which implies any sports betting bills will need to wait up until then, disallowing intervention from the governor. Nevertheless, Greenblatt was asked by CNBC's Contessa Brewer on Wednesday if the Mavericks acquisition would make a difference with legislators.
"The group owners in Texas are really influential, therefore the answer to that is yes," Greenblatt said.
A not-so-golden chance
But California stays even more off, according to the BetMGM CEO.
"California has sadly taken defeat from the jaws of victory too many times previously," Greenblatt said. "Sharing is difficult in California. There are too lots of incumbent, extremely strong, prominent groupings."
First and primary among those prominent groups are the Native American tribes involved in gambling establishment gambling in California. It was the people who led the opposition to online sports wagering in 2022, and it was the tribes who closed down an effort to get another concern on the ballot this year.
"And so the passage to sports wagering in California is an offer which includes the people as partners," Greenblatt said.
Behind the scenes
The remarks made Wednesday recommend legalization of sports wagering in California or Texas remains years away. Nevertheless, the dispute is necessary for the market, as legalization in either state would open the largest state-level market in the U.S. for sportsbook operators, with countless new clients there to be obtained.
Sports betting legislation also made some headway in the Texas legislature in 2015 before eventually falling short. Furthermore, "interested parties are working behind the scenes to get online sports betting legislated in 2025," JMP Securities analyst Jordan Bender composed in a March 5 note to customers.