After years of battling to launch online sports betting in the state, New Yorkers may finally get it in 2021. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he is on board to legalize mobile sports betting this year.
It comes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic decimated New York’s state budget, and New Jersey continues to bring in revenue from New Yorkers looking to place bets.
Finally, Cuomo realizes how vital it is for the state to have online betting available. New York is now going to become one of the premier sports betting states in the U.S.
“At a time when New York faces a historic budget deficit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the current online sports wagering structure incentivizes a large segment of New York residents to travel out of state to make online sports wagers or continue to patronize black markets,” said Cuomo.
New York will finally be able to move forward with its sports betting industry and could become one of the nation’s market leaders.
What to Expect with New York Mobile Betting
For the first 12 hours after Cuomo stated that he is looking to launch mobile betting in the state, it looks like things began to turn for the worst. It’s not that Cuomo is backing off of his promise. It’s how he wants the state to run the industry.
Cuomo’s early proposal is that the New York Lottery would oversee sports betting regulations. With this, states with lottery systems have not as much success as states that keep sports betting separate from the lottery.
When the state’s lottery oversees sports betting, it keeps more money for the state instead of sharing the money with local governments and sportsbooks. The state keeps more for itself. However, states get greedy doing this and hurt the industry more in the long run compared to allowing a normal industry to grow, ask Washington D.C.
New York is facing a $50 billion budget deficit and needs to help fill the hole quickly. However, trying to use the lottery system to build up the industry and quickly bring in funds will hurt New York in the long-term.
Cuomo is looking for one sportsbook to run the whole state, which could also be an issue for the industry in New York. Having only one mobile sportsbook could create a monopoly on the New York industry, which again hurt it in the long-term.
The healthiest state industries are run by a separate entitity, and have multiple operators, over double digits, working the state.
Potential Operators
If a sportsbook has a retail location in New York, then it has the chance to operate mobile sports betting in the state. Right now, there are six sportsbooks that could run all of New York’s mobile betting, but two stick out in Cuomo’s report.
DraftKings Sportsbook
DraftKings is one of two sportsbooks being considered to be apart of the New York Lottery. DraftKings has a casino operation at del Lago Resort & Casino in Waterloo. Cuomo wanted a sportsbook to be partnered with a casino, and DraftKings is the largest online betting operator in the U.S.
FanDuel Sportsbook
Trying to compete with its number one competitor, FanDuel is in the running to operate New York’s mobile sports betting operations. FanDuel is in Tioga Downs in Nichols, so it is also eligible to operate the mobile betting industry.
