Online sports betting sites will open their digital doors to North Carolina residents on Friday, but players can only take a look around and register for an account, not wager.
The actual mobile betting in the Tar Heel State will legally begin on March 11. But, on March 1 at noon, residents can start signing up with the operators of the state’s new online sports betting apps and sites, according to the North Carolina State Lottery Commission.
North Carolina already has legal sports betting at a few casinos, and its process to register for a mobile wagering account will be similar to that of other states. Residents aged 21 and older can download an app or head to an operator’s website to start the sign-up process, and from there, they will have to provide certain details about themselves.
Several operators could be ready to accept customers on Friday, including DraftKings, FanDuel, bet365, Fanatics Sportsbook, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, ESPN BET, and Underdog.
“It'll be pretty standard,” DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said in mid-February during a conference call for analysts and investors. “I mean, at this point, our playbook’s honed. So we're not going to approach North Carolina any differently, other than a few optimizations that we always make around the edges.”
Standard operating procedure
A person who tries to sign up for online sports betting in North Carolina must provide their name, date of birth, address, Social Security number "or an equivalent government identification number for a noncitizen, for example, a passport or taxpayer identification number," the rules manual for the state says.
Operators can also ask for "other information" from the player to help verify their identity and eligibility to wager.
Bookmakers are expected to use "reasonable measures" to ensure the person registering for an account is who they say they are before depositing and betting.
Confirmed: online sports betting will legally start in North Carolina on March 11. The state lottery commission just voted to confirm that date. Pre-registration can begin on March 1. https://t.co/CgbIhw9emU
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) January 24, 2024
The rules state the operator must require users to either answer three "dynamic knowledge-based questions" from public and private data; verify the player's phone number and email so they match the information provided; ask for a picture of government-issued ID; verify the player's device is tied to them using "historical location data," mobile phone ID authentication, or multi-factor authentication; or use another method approved by regulators.
Of note: a sportsbook operator can refuse to open an account for you if it finds out information you provided is false or incomplete. Players are only allowed to have one wagering account per operator, and the company can close an account of somebody trying to get around that rule, "whether directly or by use of another Person as proxy."
Cash or credit?
A player can expect to be asked for a username and password, or another method of logging in, each time they try to access their online sportsbook. Players can opt-in to using multi-factor authentication to log in, as well as when they forget their password and need to reset it. If you try and fail to log in three times in a row in 30 minutes, your account will be locked, and you'll need to use multi-factor authentication to regain access.
But once you've finally provided all the relevant details and jumped through all the various hoops, it's time to deposit. North Carolina sports betting operators will accept cash, credit and debit cards, electronic funds transfers, promotional or bonus credits, winnings, reloadable prepaid cards, and other forms of payment that may be approved in the future by regulators.
Operators must also give players the option to limit the amount of money they can deposit and wager, including on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Those limits must be lowered immediately if a player asks, while increases only become effective after the time limit previously set by the player expires.
“I think you're going to see North Carolina be a very similar state launch to the ones … that we did last year,” DraftKings’ Robins said.
