North Carolina has opened email registration for sports betting service providers and suppliers who plan to operate in the Tar Heel State early next year.
The email portal for service providers – or sportsbooks that sets odds and lines – and sports wagering suppliers opened Sept. 1 on the NC Education Lottery website. A similar registration portal was opened on the website for online sports betting operators on Aug. 8. Potential licensees will receive application and licensing updates by signing up for updates.
Up to 12 online sportsbooks plus up to eight in-person sportsbooks at sports facilities including PNC Arena, Spectrum Center, and Charlotte Motor Speedway are allowed under North Carolina’s 2023 sports betting law. Additionally, the act authorizes live horse racing and horse race wagering in the state.
All sports betting applications and licensing for mobile sportsbooks and betting at sports facilities will be overseen by the NC Education Lottery. According to the agency website, application deadlines are “still being worked on at this time.”
Right now, sports betting and horse race betting are legal in North Carolina on tribal lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Catawba Indian Nation only.
Sports Betting Launch Date Pending
North Carolina law gives the state Lottery Commission until June 14, 2024 (or 12 months from the June 14, 2023 effective date of the state’s sports betting law) to start issuing licenses to online operators, service providers, and suppliers.
But a launch date could come sooner.
According to the NC Education Lottery website:
The North Carolina State Lottery Commission is moving forward with the substantial efforts required to responsibly license and regulate sports betting, and pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing, and horse racing itself. The commission’s goal is to make sure sports gaming gets up and running in an effective and appropriate fashion as soon as possible.
When the application process opens, possibly later this fall, the commission has up to 60 days to review and issue a license after an application is received.
That could put a North Carolina mobile and commercial retail launch in the queue for early 2024.
NC Sports Betting ‘Milestones’ Are Adding Up
The email registration portal opened Sept. 1 is one in a series of recent steps that regulators are taking to set up North Carolina sports betting. Other milestones announced by the commission ahead of an expected 2024 launch include the following:
- Sept. 5 – The commission announces that it has additional attorneys to help draft sports betting rules and regulations. Drafting of the rules is necessary for the licensing of operators, providers, and suppliers.
- Aug. 30 – The commission announces that it has begun a search for an experienced “Director of Licensing.” The job description requires the person to “develop, implement, and manage a licensing framework for sports betting” in North Carolina.
- Aug. 11 – The NC Education Lottery hires GLI (Gaming Laboratories International) to test and certify sports betting systems in the state.
- Aug. 9 – A Request for Proposal for an online sports betting regulatory management system is posted by the commission. Responses are due by Sept. 6, 2023.
- Aug. 2 – Former Massachusetts Gaming Commission Sports Betting Manager Sterl Carpenter is hired to lead the NC Education Lottery’s Sports Betting Division.
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