The North Carolina Lottery Commission has yet to share an official start date for legal mobile sports betting, but there’s growing optimism that betting apps will go live in the Tar Heel State before the NCAA Tournament begins.
“The goal is to get it out there before March Madness,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in a recent “Ovies and Giglio” radio interview. “No guarantee that that’s the case, but I think that is the goal.”
Lottery commissioners have stated previously that North Carolina’s mobile sports wagering launch will occur sometime after the Feb. 11 Super Bowl. North Carolina legislation requires betting apps to be operational by mid-June, and the lottery expects to have the mobile market up and running before that deadline.
“If progress continues at the pace it is now, an earlier start date than June 15 should be achievable, as the governor indicated,” a lottery spokesperson told Sports Handle. “North Carolinians love basketball season and are looking forward [to] the chance to bet on their favorite teams and players. With all the progress that’s been made, the commission expects to be in a position soon to announce when sports betting can begin in North Carolina.”
March Madness begins on March 19. It’s a notable event for sports bettors nationwide, and it holds particular meaning in North Carolina with Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State, and Wake Forest among the North Carolina universities with large men’s and women’s basketball followings.
Operator applications submitted a1k6f
A key step in the lottery’s process of getting legal sports betting up and running is accepting and approving operator license applications. The lottery requested that operators send applications by Wednesday, and those submitted applications are likely to be discussed at meetings in January.
The lottery’s sports betting committee meets next on Jan. 4, and the lottery commission will meet soon after on Jan. 10. Operator approvals could occur at those meetings, although meeting agendas have yet to be shared publicly.
It’s expected that major sports betting operators such as FanDuel will be among the first apps to enter North Carolina’s mobile betting market.
An official launch of North Carolina sports betting is still more than a month away, but Gov. Cooper sounds content with the lottery’s effort to prepare the state for betting apps to launch.
“They’re working on it [as] fast as they can,” Cooper said.
