The North Carolina Lottery Commission approved a pair of essential procedures needed to bring legal sports betting to the Tar Heel State. However, when that will happen is still unknown.
The commission voted unanimously to use internal control submission requirements and process to obtain a certificate of compliance from the state, which the sports betting committee detailed and identified as the "key" to launching online sports betting. Two committee recommendations for independent testing laboratories, GLI and BMM, were also unanimously approved by the commission on Wednesday.
“This is not a very exciting set of issues that we’ve dealt with today,” commission chair Ripley Rand said. “But they are very important to the process of approving licensees and operators here in North Carolina.”
When will N.C. launch?
The commission hopes that getting the certificate of compliance requirements passed will now help speed up the process to get perspective sports betting operators ready for a launch.
The commission gave minimal indication of when a go-live date will be announced at Wednesday’s meeting. The sports betting committee has given operators a Jan. 26 deadline to file their internal controls documents.
At that time, there could be a clearer launch date known. The sports betting committee is scheduled to meet on Jan. 30. Gov. Roy Cooper has said that the hope is to go live in time for March Madness.
Application process
Deputy executive director of gaming Sterl Carpenter said Wednesday that 44% of the sports betting operators, suppliers, and providers that requested license applications have submitted. Nine of the 18 operators have applied for a license. The initial seven applicants released last month are FanDuel, DraftKings, ESPN BET, bet365, Fanatics Sportsbook, BetMGM, and Underdog Fantasy.
Two added to the list Wednesday are Catawba Two Kings, located 40 miles from Charlotte and close to the border with South Carolina, and the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise Cherokee, which runs two brick-and-mortar, Caesars-sponsored casinos.
