Thursday, Legal Sports Betting Launches in Arizona Despite Potential Legal Delay
Despite a potential lawsuit that took a Labor Day hearing to halt, legal sports betting has launched in the state of Arizona on Thursday, as planned, just in time for the start of the NFL’s 2021/22 regular season.
Eighteen of the twenty possible sportsbook licenses are now available to anyone over the age of twenty-one who is standing in the state of Arizona and ready to place a bet on pro and college sporting events including those involving Arizona’s popular NFL team (Cardinals), its MLB team (Diamondbacks), and its NBA (Phoenix Suns) and WNBA (Phoenix Mercury) franchises.
Now some of the leading sportsbook companies, including FanDuel, BetMGM, DraftKings, WynnBET, and Caesars Sportsbook, have launched and activated their betting apps in Arizona, and each has included some amazing bonus offers for new bettors and sports fans in the Grand Canyon State.
Other sportsbooks, like Casino Del Sol, told the press that it will not be launching just yet, with organizers saying the physical sportsbook and mobile betting app “are not ready to go live” and that they are expecting to launch them in the coming weeks.
To celebrate Thursday’s official launch in Arizona, there was a bit of fanfare held live from Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks, attended by such dignitaries as Governor Doug Ducey as well as the co-sponsors of the original sports betting bill, State Senator T.J. Shope and State Representative Jeff Weninger.
The event was presented by Caesars Sportsbook and headlined by former SportsCenter host celebrity Trey Wingo, who is also now Caesars Chief Trends Officer, the first brand ambassador for its newly relaunched Caesars Sportsbook brand.
Afterward, Wingo and some Caesar’s reps gave the press a taste of the type of gambling takes Wingo will be dishing out, including his thoughts on Week 1 trends in the NFL, with the Emmy Award-winning former TV host telling the camera and his co-hosts:
[Every NFL team] thinks they’re good in Week 1. You don’t find out how bad you are until about Week 4. I expect there to be massive upheaval.
And when it comes to legal sports betting, Arizona lawmakers expect there to be massive revenue.
Arizona Sports Betting Projected to Generate $15.2 Million in Revenue by 2024
With all those pro sports teams based in Arizona among a state population of just over seven million, government analysts project total annual sports betting revenue of $15.2 million by 2024.
The state will charge a tax rate of 8 percent on the estimated taxable annual revenue of $154.4 million once the market is fully operational, with all that money made by sports gambling set to be funneled into the state’s General Fund, minus 10 percent in administrative costs.
What a difference that money will make in a state that, like so many others, has been financially devastated by the effects of the worldwide pandemic, Arizona now officially joining about a dozen and a half other states that now offer legal sports betting to its residents.
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