Matthew Waters and the team at Legal Sports Report highlight some of the key US sports betting issues to look out for in the week ahead.
All eyes on the NFL: We’ll finally get to see what kind of fallout a professional league deals with after one of its players is caught betting. The NFL suspended injured Arizona Cardinals defensive back Josh Shaw through at least all of next season for betting on football. The league said there was no evidence Shaw had any inside information and none of his teammates or coaches knew he was betting. But the statement from the league left much unknown: where did Shaw bet? Did he bet legally or illegally? Did he bet on his own team?
DC opens sports betting application process: It still isn’t clear when sports betting might begin in Washington, DC, but the DC Lottery will take a step forward Tuesday when it opens the application process for sports betting operators and suppliers. The sports betting setup in DC could take a while because of how confusing and convoluted some of the geofencing issues are. For example, stadiums and arenas that offer sports betting get exclusive mobile operations within a two-block radius where Intralot’s DC Lottery app will be unavailable. Class B operators, which will typically be restaurants and bars, also get mobile operations that are geofenced to the physical footprint of their property.
Rhode Island’s October sports betting results: While Rhode Island is a state that has a ramping mobile sports betting scene, it’s not quite the same as an Indiana, Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Rhode Island requires in-person registration which means potential bettors must visit one of the two Twin River casinos in the state to create their mobile betting account. Through mid-October, less than 5% of the total app downloads were registering their accounts on a weekly basis.
