BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Sports betting is getting a step closer with the approval of the official catalog. The catalog lists out all the possible leagues that people will be allowed to bet on from NASCAR to college football to tennis.
There are some restrictions, such as betting on high school sports is not allowed. The long list of sports leagues will be available on the Gaming Control Board website starting tomorrow.
“As other licensees wish to add additional events or sports to the state for possible wagering they’ll have a process where they submit that to the board,” said Major Chuck McNeal, Command Inspector for Gaming Enforcement Division with the Louisiana State Police.
As for when sports betting will be available, that is still unknown.
“We are going through an extensive process on online licensing,” said Ronnie Johns, Chairman of the Gaming Control Board. “It’s a very complicated process and we’re going to do it the right way. We only get one shot at rolling this out, so we’re going to do it the right way.”
Johns said the state patrol was diverted from their investigations into these applicants due to Hurricane Ida but they now have their focus again. The state patrol has to investigate the companies that apply for sports betting licenses to make sure they won’t be a major risk to the state. To offer online betting they must have a brick-and-mortar casino, bar, or other business.
There are 20 licenses available in total and 13 have applied. Applications are due by the end of the year.
The board did, however, approve the second fantasy sports betting license. This is where people can draft made-up teams on an app to win points over a sports season. FanDuel will be coming to Louisiana and expects to be making millions in the state. There were some concerns that the company has had negative cash flow in recent years, but FanDuel pointed out the first approved company did as well.
“It’s just an aspect of getting the regulatory approvals in all the jurisdictions and getting them up and running,” said Attorney Janet Boles.
FanDuel already operates in 46 other states.
The board chairman did not give any hard date of when the first sports betting licenses will be approved to begin sports betting across the state despite numerous rumors stating it is in the near future.