The legalization of sports betting in Texas remains a high priority for professional sports teams there.
Both Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Dallas Stars president and CEO Brad Albert pressed those points at the Sports Business Journal AXS DRIVE event in Frisco.
Jones has long embraced gambling as a revenue stream, in 2018 signing WinStar World Casino in Oklahoma as the first gambling sponsor of an NFL team.
Said Jones, who is a member of the NFL sports betting committee:
“We have had a concentrated effort trying to push [the legalization of sports betting in Texas] forward.”
“It’s hard when you’re talking to politicians. They assume that you want sports betting because you’re trying to make money off the bet. That certainly far from the truth.”
The parlay, Jones said, is in the long-held, since-proved notion that bettors are more ardent fans.
“We saw this bump in avidity and stickiness of our fans when we [ramped up] fantasy football, because everybody wanted to see every game — not just the team that they rooted for. And you magnify that. It becomes really quite an additive effort. … [Fans] want to follow everything, and they want to stay in and engage to the last second of the game in every game. And to have that kind of interest for our fans across the sport is really significant for us as a league standpoint.”
Albert told SBJ that the Stars consider the legalization of sports betting in Texas a major factor on their business model.
“How gambling is going to play in the state of Texas continues to be a big question mark, and it’ll have a great impact on our business if it’s legalized,” he said.
Texas Sports Betting Timeline
Albert said the managements of Texas pro sports teams are eager to see what sports betting legislation emerges in Austin this January. That’s because they’ve been waiting a while. The Texas Legislature meets only in odd-numbered years.
In 2023, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick scuttled a legalization effort by refusing to call a joint resolution to a vote after it emerged from the House of Representatives. HJR 102 would have put sports betting to a state-wide vote. In addition, any gambling expansion in Texas requires amending the state constitution. The process: a two-thirds vote by the House and Senate and approval of a majority of voters.
While Patrick has been a steadfast opponent, Gov. Greg Abbott has said he is amenable to gambling expansion.
An Aug. 21 Eilers & Krejcik report removed Texas from its list of states likely to legalize sports betting in 2025.
Texas Pro Sports Owners Steeped in Gambling
One of the most gambling-averse states in the US is chocked with owners heavily involved in the game. So much so that they formed a lobbying organization.
- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in 2023 sold a controlling interest in his NBA team to the Adelson and Dumont families, who run Las Vegas Sands Corp. Cuban has advocated building a casino/resort around a new Mavericks arena.
- Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta owns Golden Nugget Hotels & Casinos among numerous gambling interests.
- Jones was an early DraftKings investor and signed the landmark deal with WinStar.
- The McNair family (Houston Texans) once owned a thoroughbred racing stable.
And while he’s not an owner, Houston Astros fan Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has become a Colonel Sanders-like sports betting icon for his highly publicized, high-dollar sports bets placed in legal betting states.
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