Connecticut Sports Betting Online Launch Announced
Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images. Pictured: Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont.
Connecticut’s first legal online sportsbooks will go live Oct. 19, officials announced Friday.
A select group will be able to participate in a "soft launch" beginning Oct. 12. Assuming no hiccups with any of the three approved statewide mobile operators, eligible Connecticut bettors can start wagering ahead of NFL Week 7 games.
Connecticut Sports Betting Details
DraftKings, FanDuel and PlaySugarHouse will offer statewide mobile wagering. Eligible bettors can register, deposit and wager from within state lines without having to register in-person at a gaming facility beforehand.
Connecticut officials had planned to launch mobile betting Oct. 7. The state-level rollout was delayed by a separate federal approval process, which wasn’t finalized until Sept. 27.
Once live, Connecticut’s three mobile sportsbooks will present more options than the rest of New England combined. New York is set to launch four or more mobile sportsbooks sometime next year.
DraftKings and FanDuel can also offer online casino gaming including digital table games, slots and poker.
Bettors can not wager on individual games including in-state college programs such as UConn men’s and women’s basketball. Bettors can still wager on larger tournaments these teams compete in, such as March Madness, just not on an individual game with that team. Illinois and New Jersey have similar bans.
Betting is also prohibited on the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun at the Mohegan Sun Casino. The Mohegan Tribe owns the franchise.
Connecticut’s first retail sportsbooks, a DraftKings book at Foxwoods Resort and a FanDuel book at Mohegan Sun, opened Sept. 30. SugarHouse retail books are expected to open retail sportsbooks at several OTBs sometime in the coming months.
As with every other state with both online and retail betting, mobile betting is expected to take up the lion’s share of wagering handle. Mobile betting makes up more than 80% of betting handle in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Connecticut Sports Betting Launch Delay Explanation
Connecticut officials technically legalized online sports betting in May but state and federal officials still had to undertake a lengthy regulatory review process that is — finally — set to end on Oct. 19.
Gov. Ned Lamont as well as the Mashantucket Pequot (Foxwoods) and Mohegan (Mohegan Sun) tribes struck a new gaming compact earlier this year that paved the way for the state’s expanded gaming options. Under federal law, the compact was subject to Department of the Interior approval, which didn’t come until this fall.
That final approval, which came via publication in the Federal Registrar, allowed the two tribal sportsbooks to open. However, statewide mobile wagering was subject to a separate regulatory process undertaken by state-level regulators.
Connecticut regulators waited until a final formal memorandum of understanding was published in the Federal Register Sept. 25 to begin the final approval process for statewide mobile books. The publication came later than state officials had originally expected, leading to a postponement in the statewide mobile launch.
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