The New England area got another big boost to its impending sports betting empire. New Hampshire is now the sixth state within 2019 to have sports betting fully functional and, most importantly, legalized.
The late-December rollout for mobile betting was slightly earlier than the previous estimation of January, from the New Hampshire Lottery, when everything would be ready to go.
“DraftKings will be launching our digital sportsbook at some point during the day on Dec. 30,” said DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish.
While the mobile betting app will be available next week, the first retail sportsbook will not be available to the public until three or four months from now. The New Hampshire Lottery will also have its own betting type of product through Intralot. Yes, that’s the same Intralot that was causing up a stir in The District of Columbia.
In terms of the New Hampshire sports betting landscape, DraftKings will be a major player. It will be splitting a 50/50 gross revenue with the lottery for commercial exclusivity. The deal includes the mobile application and up to 10 retail locations for the sportsbooks.
“We don’t have an exact date, but we’re going to launch our first property in the first half of next year,” Kalish said. “There’s a handful of cities that have already approved it, and so we’re looking at the ones that have already been approved to make our determination where to enter.
“It’s really no different except if you’re a cash bettor, and you want to transact in cash and hold a physical ticket. We think it could be a pretty good opportunity in New Hampshire to supplement the mobile with a healthy amount of retail, because there’s a lot of customers who prefer to bet that way.”
DraftKings has been in the news recently with plans to go public in 2020 on the NASDAQ Exchange. Also in this deal, betting technology company SBTech will be merging with DraftKings to create the first vertically-integrated US sports betting company. The combination of these two giants is expected to have a $3.3 billion market cap.
Right On Schedule
The Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, definitely nailed his prediction right on the head. Back in October, Sununu told Boston radio station WEEI that would be placing a bet on the New England Patriots before the NFL season ended. At the time when New Hampshire’s requests for proposals still weren’t out, it seemed like Sununu’s proclamation was a far reach – at best.
However, thanks to New Hampshire and DraftKings, both parties moved quick enough to get the deal done, and now here we are.
There aren’t too many restrictions with sports betting in New Hampshire, aside from mobile betting being the only method for the first few months and bettors needing to be at least 18 years of age.
However, just as we’ve seen in other states, residents won’t be able to bet on any collegiate games that include any of the colleges and universities within the borders. Luckily, there aren’t too many schools with major athletic programs that call New Hampshire home.
