New Yorkers could soon be gambling on the winner of next year’s NFL MVP award, but only if lawmakers give the green light first.
New York Senate Bill 8777 was introduced on Monday by Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. and referred to the chamber’s racing, gaming, and wagering committee, which Addabbo chairs.
The measure would amend the Empire State’s gambling laws to explicitly permit wagering on season-long props and awards futures.
It would do so by tweaking the definition of “sports wagering” to include both “in-game and season-long” props. Wagering would also mean “season award winners; provided however, that such in-game and season-long proposition bets and season award winners wagers shall be limited to those wagers that are performance-based unless such wagers were otherwise authorized by the commission” if and when the bill becomes law.
A toss-up
The bill also “establishes coin toss bets that affect the gameplay of an event shall be permitted at all sporting events.”
The passage appears to authorize gambling on, say, the coin toss of a Buffalo Bills game if you are physically at the stadium. Questions put to Addabbo’s office and the New York State Gaming Commission about the proposals and the state’s current rules were not answered before this story was published.
Nevertheless, similar language was included in proposed budget legislation, which bodes well for its passage in one form or another. If the legislation passes, it could give online sportsbooks in New York all the legal cover they need to offer another set of wagering markets.
The rich get richer
The added offerings could help grow mobile sports betting in New York even further. New York is the biggest competitive market for event wagering in the U.S. While Florida may be larger in terms of population and overall handle, the lack of public reporting and competitors for the Seminole Tribe-owned Hard Rock Bet there make it hard to determine whether the Empire or Sunshine State is king of the legal sports betting states.
More than $17 billion was wagered with New York's online sportsbooks from April of 2023 to the end of February this year, according to figures from the gaming commission. Operators have generated more than $1.6 billion in gross gaming revenue from that handle, which earned the state more than $822 million in tax money for education thanks to the 51% revenue share split with bookmakers.
