Maine sports betting launch could see further delays amid lack of operators' applications

Sports betting in Maine is at least six months away from going live. However, the head of the state’s gambling commission expressed a sense of urgency as the agency continues to draft rules for how wagering will operate. 

Milt Champion, executive director of the Gambling Control Unit, is urging sports betting providers interested in doing business in the state to begin applying for licenses; as he worries that waiting too long could push back his estimates of when sports betting in Maine will go live. 

Since Maine posted provisional applications for the sports betting licenses on February 14, no one has applied. “The applications are out there, and I’d really like to see people that are going to do business in Maine start to fill out and reach out to us and communicate with us, and let’s get these applications in now rather than later,” Champion said, as reported by the Press Herald.

Champion stated sports betting is unlikely to be up and running before the fall. The Gambling Control Unit is in the process of revising sports betting rules following 581 written comments received after the first draft was published in January. The executive director said the next draft of rules will likely be ready in either late April or early May.

“I would say the timeline’s been moved up to, instead of April to January 2024, say October 2023 to January 2024. That would be the new window,” he said of sports betting going live, as per the cited source. “I was really looking forward to having a soft opening in June or July, and we’ll still work towards that, but right now with what we’ve received so far, it doesn’t look like it’s a process that would be rectified in that time frame.”

The revamped rules will be open to public comment, and then revised again at least once more by Champion’s office before they are eventually sent to the Maine Attorney General’s office for approval, which has up to four months to review the final draft of rules. Once approved, sports wagering will go live.

Maine joined dozens of states allowing sports betting when Governor Janet Mills signed a bill passed by the legislature last spring. The sports gaming law went into effect on August 8. Champion estimated in January that the state’s annual cut of sports betting will be $3.8 million to $6.9 million. 

Maine’s Indigenous tribes have exclusive rights to the lucrative online sports betting market, which accounted for 87% of bets nationally in 2021, according to the American Gaming Association. 

There also will be as many as 10 in-person retail sites for sports betting. Both the tribes and the retail sites negotiate their own deals with providers, but those deals have to be approved by Champion. 

A fall launch for sports betting in Maine would coincide with the football season, but providers taking too much time to send in license applications could push back that timeline, Champion said. 

“At some point we’re going to get applications, applications, applications, and my staff’s going to be pulling their hair out wondering what are we supposed to do with all of these applications,” he said. “(If) you can go live Nov. 24, but if you submit your application on Nov. 25, we might not finish your background investigations. These are extensive. It might be another six months before you get your license.”

While several other states had orders for retail and online sports betting to go live at once, Champion said there will be no such combined launch in Maine. As soon as the final rules are approved by the Secretary of State’s office, the market will go live, and whichever companies are licensed will be able to start taking bets.

Companies and operators not officially licensed by the time Maine goes live can do business via temporary licenses while they wait, provided they meet established criteria laid out in state law.

Champion noted he is surprised to see that Maine has not yet received applications, and assured he does not know what the reasons for it are. “If they’re waiting because they made a comment on something and they want to see if it’s going to get changed first before they apply, I just don’t know that," he stated.

Steven Silver.

According to Steven Silver, chair of the state’s Gambling Control Board, Maine will draw provider interest but believes the biggest names in the industry might be dissuaded. One of the deterrents would likely be Maine’s cap on online revenue. Providers partnering with one or more tribes can earn up to 30% of the revenue, or up to 40% with Champion’s approval. 

States have widely varying rules for potential payouts to providers. New Hampshire, Delaware, New York and Rhode Island allow for providers to earn up to 49 or 50% of revenue, while more than 25 states allow them to keep up to 80 or 90%. Restrictions on advertisements “would be the strictest in the nation,” Silver pointed out.