Virginia Considers Allowing Sports Betting on In-State Colleges

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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:03 - Basically a state in your neck of the woods,

00:04 so you have a lot of familiarity with the state of Virginia.

00:07 Your sports betting professionally, a really easy scenario,

00:11 collegiate athletes and college sports betting,

00:14 definitely a completely different story.

00:16 What is the latest going on with this new bill

00:19 that's being proposed?

00:20 - Yeah, so currently you can't bet

00:22 on in-state colleges in Virginia.

00:24 Bill, fairly simple, would change that.

00:27 So you'd be able to bet on Virginia,

00:29 Virginia Tech, JMU, all those different colleges in Virginia.

00:33 I think the reason there,

00:34 there's potential revenue increase certainly,

00:37 but also just protections for the athletes.

00:39 Having those markets regulated,

00:41 I think legislators are starting to think

00:43 maybe that's actually better for protecting the athletes

00:46 from whether it's online harassment

00:49 or potential match fixing type of thing.

00:53 So it's just a way to protect them a little bit better,

00:56 bring in a little more revenue as well.

00:58 We'll see if it actually gets passed.

01:00 Similar effort failed in 2022.

01:03 - Do you think, Bennett,

01:05 that this is something that if Virginia

01:08 gets pushed across the goal line,

01:10 that other states would follow suit?

01:12 Because I find it hard to believe

01:14 that some of the sports book operators around the country

01:17 are simply willing to, say, lose money

01:20 on their sports book handle.

01:22 - I think it could.

01:24 I think it's one where if you can show,

01:26 if you're Virginia,

01:27 the athletes are thoroughly protected

01:29 for many of those, I guess, potential concerns

01:31 that people have and brings in a little more revenue.

01:34 Obviously the operators like it, like you mentioned,

01:36 that I do think it's one where

01:38 if Virginia can get this across,

01:39 you might have some other states that follow suit.

01:41 And certainly you've also got a lot of states in the country

01:43 that already do and already are okay with

01:46 in-state colleges allowing betting on those teams.

01:49 - Yeah, and that's the dynamic that we'll have to see.

01:52 I know New Jersey does not, but some other states do.

01:55 So, you know, state by, this is the Wild West sports betting.

01:58 It's like a state by state situation,

01:59 but perhaps if some safeguards are in place,

02:02 this would help.

02:03 All right, let's go over to North Carolina.

02:06 And I know that there's been some back and forth

02:08 and meetings trying to figure out

02:10 what is going on exactly

02:11 and how sports betting will operate.

02:12 I know the lottery has also been involved as well.

02:15 What is the timeline here there?

02:17 - It looks like March.

02:19 So nothing official yet from the lottery.

02:22 But you've got operators that have sort of dropped hints

02:24 in some various press releases recently.

02:27 I think Fanatic said they're expecting March.

02:30 BetMGM was a little more vague.

02:31 They said Q1.

02:33 They've already stated the lottery.

02:35 That is that a Super Bowl,

02:36 pre-Super Bowl launch is not happening,

02:38 but pre-March madness seems like a realistic goal.

02:41 So still nothing official there.

02:44 I think the lottery meets again at the end of January.

02:47 So maybe we'll get an official timeline then,

02:48 but sort of based on what the operators are saying,

02:51 I think what they're expecting,

02:53 sort of industry stakeholders are hearing maybe early March,

02:56 which would be before March madness, certainly,

02:58 which means quite a lot to the state of North Carolina,

03:01 where you can make an argument

03:02 that the four best teams in the ACC right now

03:05 for men's basketball play in the state.

03:07 So there would be a lot of betting action and interest

03:10 from fans in North Carolina

03:11 if they're ready before March madness.

03:13 (upbeat music)

03:16 (upbeat music)

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