Delaware lawmakers Sunday did not take up a bill that would have expanded the state’s regulated sports betting market. The First State remains one of the few with single-operator markets.
Unsurprisingly, this has drawn the ire of sportsbooks looking for greater market access. Sports betting stakeholders lobbied heavily against the low or single-operator lottery markets, largely successfully. Only six jurisdictions – Washington, D.C., Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, and Rhode Island – approved lottery-run markets. Florida, the nation’s only other single-operator market, runs its sports betting platform via the state’s Seminole Tribe, not the lottery.
A score of operators with high hopes – and millions of dollars – invested in sports betting have since shuttered. This includes major gaming companies such as Churchill Downs and Wynn that, after initial flurries, have shut down their sportsbooks. Six years after the Supreme Court ruling that permitted sports betting outside Nevada, only a few other operators have shown staying power.