A new study performed by analysts Eilers & Krejcik Gaming predicts that should the US Supreme Court rule in favor of New Jersey’s appeal to allow legal sports betting in the state this month, it could open the floodgates of other states seeking the same rights. According to the study, a staggering 32 states will participate in a legal sports betting landscape nation wide within five years of the ban being lifted. The market could be worth $6 billion by then, say the analysts.
Further, the study shows that within just two years, 12 states will be already be on the legal sports betting bandwagon.
This month, the Supreme Court begins to hear New Jersey’s appeal to overturn the controversial Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). The Act essentially bars states from legalizing sports betting. The only states that were grandfathered out of the 1992 Act were Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana, who already had laws in place allowing several forms of legal sports betting before the law was passed.
Ahead of the appeal hearing, several states have signed amicus briefs in support of New Jersey, including West Virginia, Arizona, Louisiana, Wisconsin, and Mississippi. Connecticut and Mississippi have taken things one step further and have already passed their own laws allowing sports betting if the federal government overturns PASPA.
List of states that will legalize sports betting within two years, according to Eilers & Krejcik:
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
List of states that will legalize sports betting within five years, according to Eilers & Krejcik:
Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming
Chris Grove, the managing director of Eilers & Krejcik said that the sports betting industry generates $3 billion from US customers each year. “We estimate that a properly regulated market could be worth nearly five times that amount, resulting in a financial windfall for sports betting operators, sports leagues and media and state governments alike,” he said.
The company based its predictions on a number of factors such as whether a state had pending sports betting legislation, whether there were constitutional obstacles to expand gambling, and how hard up the state was for additional revenue.
