North Carolina sports betting is not expected to launch online until after the Super Bowl, North Carolina Lottery Chairman Ripley Rand said during a commission meeting on Wednesday.
During a commission meeting the day prior, it had been suggested that sports betting operators could begin to go live in the state as soon as Jan. 8.
The NC Lottery Commission, along with the sports betting committee, has been meeting to discuss rules for mobile wagering. The new legislation mandates that legal online sports betting should be in operation by the middle of June in 2024.
Online sports gambling was passed into law after the state governor signed, "An Act to Authorize and Regulate Wagering on Professional, College, and Amateur Horse Racing in North Carolina, and to Authorize Live Horse Racing in North Carolina."
During the meeting on Tuesday, it became clear that Jan. 8 would be a difficult deadline to meet, but it wasn't ruled out until Wednesday.
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“Thank you…for clarifying that this would not all be done by Jan. 8, otherwise we would be probably meeting daily instead of weekly to get all that done,” Commissioner Cari Boyce said to Chairman Ripley Rand in the meeting on Tuesday.
Sports betting operators will have the opportunity to submit applications to operate in North Carolina by Dec. 27. It was suggested to have a 60-day window for the commission to process the applications.
That timeline would indicate that sportsbooks will not be able to go live in North Carolina until at least March. The committee is expecting to receive hundreds of applications.
The committee declared it is still too early to release an official launch date.
