When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, and 2025 begins, 39 states will have legal sports betting. The Peach State will not be one of them.
Georgia sports betting is still illegal, despite strong efforts from sports betting advocates in the state legislature in 2024. This page will review those efforts, the failed Georgia sports betting bill, and what we expect to happen in 2025.
Georgia Sports Betting: 2024 Highlights
Jan. 24: Senator Clint Dixon introduced Senate Bill 386 to the Senate, proposing that Georgia legalize sports betting and regulate it through the Georgia Lottery. The bill also proposed that tax revenue earned from Georgia sports betting should go to the state’s education budget.
Feb. 1: The Georgia Senate approved Senate Bill 386 by a 35-15 margin. This sent the bill to the House, where the House Higher Education Committee and other committees would debate it.
Feb. 21: Representative Ron Stephens introduced House Bill 1329, aiming to formally regulate Daily Fantasy Sports operators such as Underdog, PrizePicks, and other pick’em competitions in Georgia.
March 28: The Georgia House Rules Committee did not advance the Georgia Senate sports betting bill for a vote. This is a sign that there were not enough representatives in the House to approve the bill for a vote.
Nov. 18: Leading geolocation and data security company GeoComply reported that over 42,000 sports bettors in Georgia tried to access legal sportsbooks in other states in NFL Week 11. This represented a 105% increase from NFL Week 11 in Georgia last year.
Dec. 4: Georgia Senator Brandon Beach called on the state legislature to legalize sports betting next year in an op-ed published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Beach framed the issue as a political one that Republicans need to take advantage of in 2025.
Georgia Sports Betting: Where Things Stand
The state of legal sports betting in Georgia is the same as at the beginning of 2024. Sports betting is illegal, and multiple lawmakers are trying to legalize it. It’s too early to say whether Senators Dixon, Beach, and others will be more successful in 2025 than in 2024. Given how suddenly Senate Bill 386 died in the House, we aren’t optimistic about 2025, especially as the composition of the parties in the House didn’t change in the 2024 elections.
Georgia Sports Betting: What's Next?
While legal Georgia sports betting may be a long shot in 2025, that doesn’t mean the Peach State won’t make any progress. Regulating DFS seems likely, especially since PrizePicks, one of the biggest DFS companies in the U.S., is based in Georgia. DFS laws could be a good first start toward legal sports betting in Georgia.
Pressure from legal sportsbooks could also change things. DraftKings, FanDuel, and other major sportsbooks pumped millions into lobbying Missouri lawmakers and voters in 2024. This was successful, and the Show-Me State legalized sports betting in November. These companies may try something similar in Georgia in 2025.
Georgia Sports Betting: Notes and Quotes
Brandt Iden, vice president of government affairs for Fanatics, talking about the failed efforts to pass a Georgia sports betting bill in 2024:
“What happened in Georgia was incredibly frustrating and disappointing. When legislative members in leadership positions make assurances, you expect them to be negotiating in good faith.”
Republican Senator Brandon Beach on the desire from voters for legal Georgia sports betting:
“The Georgia swing voters who helped elect Trump want sports betting … Google search data shows Georgia is one of the top locations for people searching for illegal and offshore casino Bovada. … Republicans will only have ourselves to blame when FIFA, the NFL, the NCAA, and others decide Georgia isn’t a fan-friendly state to locate big games because of our refusal to legalize sports betting.”
