Maine’s Legal Sports Betting Market to Launch No Earlier Than Summer 2023

• Maine Currently with No Scheduled Start Date to Legal Sports Betting, Summer Earliest
• State Gambling Director re Sports Betting: “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel.”
• Legal Sports Betting in Maine Expected to Generate $3.8M to $6.9M in Revenue

Maine Currently with No Scheduled Start Date to Legal Sports Betting, Summer Earliest

While it’s true that since August of last year it has been legal to sports bet in Maine, gamblers there have yet to place a wager on their favorite teams or players since that statewide market still has not launched and experts don’t expect that to change any earlier than summer 2023.

That’s according to a recent article by Online Gambling, an exploration into the slow roll of the regulatory part of that launching process in Maine, a stretch of time between when that sports betting law passed and the day the actual market launches and begins to take its bets.

The over thirty other U.S. states that have already launched their own sports betting market since May 2018 have each gone through that exact same regulatory setup delay that Maine is currently experiencing, their Gambling Control Unit Executive Director Milton Champion saying:

“I know this is a hot topic. I know everybody wants it out during the Super Bowl or during March Madness. But let’s face it, it’s just not going to happen that quickly.”

In August 2022, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed their sports betting bill – LD 585 – into law which legalized retail and online sports betting there for residents and visitors, with in-person retail betting being done at casinos and off-track sportsbooks.

Mobile sports betting will be in the control of four federally recognized Native American tribes in that state, an overall market setup that ED Champion admits might look familiar.

State Gambling Director re Sports Betting: “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel.”

Plenty of other U.S. states have existing compacts in place with their native tribes the way Maine does, so, according to OG, Champion, and the Gambling Control Unit used states such as Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio to help form their regulations for that legal market.

ED Champion told OG:

“I was nervous about being the fifth or sixth state to launch, I feel more comfortable being 34 or 35… we’re not trying to change things here in Maine. We’re not going to reinvent the wheel.”

No innovation or outside the box thinking is required, so don’t blame creativity for the delay in the Maine sports betting market’s launch – their careful approach shows a respectful attempt at making sure all the millions of details are handled correctly the first time.

The OG piece lists some of the ways that Maine’s ‘copycat’ legal sports betting market will also involve a few differences with regard to advertising:

• Can promote bonus offers but cannot promote free bets
• Must prioritize the protection of player data
•  Must encourage responsible gambling

Maine’s sports bettors reportedly should be able to start gambling by summer, though no firm launch date has been announced at this date.

Legal Sports Betting in Maine Expected to Generate $3.8M to $6.9M in Revenue

According to the OG, once Maine’s legal sports betting market is up and running it should begin to generate between $3.8 million and $6.9 million in revenue in addition to the $64 million that other forms of gambling there have brought during 2022.

That Pine Tree State sports betting operation will soon join a U.S. combined market that has already generated a total $190 billion handle, a growing and evolving American business that right now seems to have no ceiling to limit how enormous it can become.