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US – New York Senator wants to open up mobile betting to ‘several platforms’

By - 11 January 2021

New York politicians have been quick to offer alternative business models for the state’s future mobile sports betting sector that are drastically different to the single-source model put forward by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last week.

Senator Joseph Addabbo and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow have both filed similar bills in their respective chambers with Senate Bill 1183 and Assembly Bill 1257 both looking to offer more choice to the customer than the Governor’s model.

Senate Addabbo, who is Chairman of the Senate Racing, Gaming And Wagering Committee, is proposing that the four commercial casinos as well as tribal casinos should all compete for mobile betting business. Each casino would get two online skins to partner with online platforms with a total of up to 14 mobile sports operators coming to fruition in the Empire State.

He highlighted that states with lottery-run, single-source sports betting platforms have previously encountered problems.

Senator Addabbo said. “Our vision greatly differs from theirs. We have a draft of a proposal from both the State Senate and Assembly that is already in place and ready to be moved on. Our proposal sets out to use multiple skins throughout the state, so we can open it up to several platforms.”

His bill would also see other sports venues being allowed to operate betting kiosks in partnership with one of the casinos. This would see racetracks, pro sports stadiums (with a capacity of 15,000 or more), off-track betting parlours and even Resorts World New York City act as affiliate sports betting locations. Gaming-based properties would have to wait a year after the bill has become law to launch online betting whilst sports-based facilities would have to wait 20 months.

Tax would be set at 12 per cent with a 0.2 per cent royalty fee or integrity fee that would go back to the sports leagues.

Assemblyman Pretlow, who is Chairman of the Committee on Racing and Wagering in the Assembly, wants to apply a tax of 8.5 per cent on sports betting revenue.

Sports betting platform providers have also spoken out. Elys Game, previously Newgioco Group, is launching its new Elys Sportsbook platform with sports bars in Washington DC.

Matteo Monteverdi, CEO of Elys Game, said: “Elys was thrilled to hear Governor Cuomo’s plan to include mobile New York sports betting in his 2021 policy proposals. The industry clearly sees New York as having the potential to be one of the largest sports wagering market in the United States. Although this is certainly a step in the right direction, we see some issues that arise from Cuomo’s ambitions to launch a lottery-run mobile sports betting market: legal obstacles that could require an amendment to the State Constitution in order to pass; resistance from tribal gaming interests who will want a seat at the table; and many stakeholders who have supported Senator Joseph Addabbo and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow’s efforts the last few years to favour a market driven by several operators.”

Caption: Senator Joseph Addabbo

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