At this time two years ago, the only place a sports fan could place a legal bet on a game was in the state of Nevada. After New Jersey’s Supreme Court victory last year, any state that wishes can legalize sports betting. There are currently 10 states that have legalized sports betting in one form or another. In these states ( New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Delaware, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Mississippi), bets on sporting events can now be placed legally. Eight more states ( Hew Hampshire, Montana, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Washington DC) have recently passed bills to legalize sports betting. Twenty six more states have introduced bills to allow sports betting. Online bets can be placed anywhere in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania borders using FanDuel Sportsbook! To say the sports betting landscape is changing would be an understatement. In May of 2019, New Jersey’s sports betting revenue outpaced Vegas for the first time ever!
New Jersey unseats Vegas in sports betting revenue
Before legalization, it was estimated that $150 billion was wagered each year on sports betting with all but $5 billion done illegally thru local bookies or offshore accounts. Now there are casinos within an hour of SEC college campuses that allow legal bets on college football games. Posters of Pete Rose are more than likely on every collegiate locker room wall in American warning the players and coaches of the perils of accepting kick backs for shaving points. The amount of money being placed and made off collegiate sports with a non paid supporting cast will require some policing. States and conferences are already putting guidelines in place to confront the potential issues arising from the legalization of college sports betting.
From an interest standpoint, college football is at a fork in the road. With two teams dominating the playoff system, some say that interest is going to diminish until an acceptable playoff system involving more teams can be agreed upon. Others feel that the legalization of collegiate sports wagering will have interest at an all time high. Big money will be placed on weekday college games that previously had little interest other than the local venues. Vegas will have to be on top of teams like Ball State and Western Michigan that have been largely ignored in years past. While Vegas is catching up on the task of covering the lines of a 130 college football teams at an intimate level, there will be value to be had on some of the lesser hyped games. College Football Game Picker will look to take advantage of this by continuing to identify the statistical mismatches and using the insight of intangibles to identify games each week where Vegas may be cheating lines on or missing the boat all together. It’s getting close to kickoff folks. I think we can all agree it can’t get here soon enough!
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