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Vermont mobile sports betting will pass the state legislature by the end of next week, allowing up to six sportsbooks to launch by early 2024.
That’s according to Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery (DLL) chief Wendy Knight, who told Gaming Today in an interview Tuesday that legislation allowing between two and six mobile sportsbooks will receive final passage before the current session ends on May 12.
“The bill will pass,” said Knight.
She said that Vermont sports betting will be live by the end of this year or the first day of 2024 if everything goes as expected. DLL plans to send out a request for bid proposals by July 1.
“So we would be up and running by Jan. 1, 2024,” Knight declared.
Vermont Sports Betting Bill Expected to Pass Senate Thursday
The sports betting bill now before lawmakers is H.127, sponsored by Rep. Matt Birong of Vergennes. It has been fast-tracked through the Senate since March 24, when the bill first passed through the House.
The Senate is expected to amend and pass H.127 on Thursday after a third reading of the bill was ordered Wednesday. Should it clear the Senate, the bill will return to the House for final passage.
H.127 would then go to Gov. Phil Scott, who is expected to sign it into law.
Knight has repeatedly said in legislative committee hearings that legal sports wagering is important to the Scott administration.
“Time is critical with the sports wagering bill,” Knight wrote in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee last week. “I know the Committee shares the Administration’s commitment to legalizing — at long last — sports wagering in Vermont.”
Vermont Sportsbooks Would Be Untethered
Vermont mobile sports betting under H.127 would be operated by independent sportsbooks, with potential operators including BetMGM, FanDuel, and DraftKings. There will be lottery regulation, but no lottery sportsbook app.
Additionally, there won’t be any apps tethered to casinos. Vermont doesn’t have casinos.
Casinos are usually a launching point for mobile sports betting in the US, but not always. Vermont’s neighbor New Hampshire has no traditional casinos but has both legal online and retail sports betting regulated by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission. The state has three retail sportsbooks and one online sportsbook, all operated by DraftKings.
Tennessee has mobile-only sports betting. Like Vermont, Tennessee has no casinos or active horse tracks to anchor sports betting under state law.
The good news is both New Hampshire (online sports betting tax of 51%) and Tennessee (20%) rank well in total and mobile betting handle and sports betting revenue based on recent data. That bodes well for Vermont, where the minimum allowable “revenue share” under H.127 is 20 percent but could go as high as 50 percent by some estimates.
New Hampshire, New York Sports Betting Tax Rates Eyed by Vermont
Knight told Gaming Today that lawmakers left a statutory tax rate out of the bill to give the state leeway to pursue a larger revenue share. She mentioned New Hampshire and New York – both with a rate of 51 percent on sports betting revenue – as potential models.
“We wanted the opportunity to have a higher revenue share like exists in New Hampshire and New York,” she said.
However, Knight was noncommittal on what Vermont’s revenue share would most likely be. Reaching that determination is part of the bid process, she said.
“Through that competitive bid process we will determine what the operators are willing to offer in terms of a revenue share,” she said. “The minimum revenue share in the bill is 20%, so we would be looking at (that minimum).”
Revenue estimates of $2 million in fiscal year (FY) 2024 and $10.6 million in FY 2025 are expected for Vermont based on a state fiscal note. Both amounts are based on 50 percent of an operator’s adjusted gross revenue.
Vermont Wants Competitive, Safe Sports Betting Market
Vermont has worked closely with New Hampshire in anticipation of creating its sports betting program, Knight said. But Vermont does not plan to perfectly mirror New Hampshire’s sports betting program.
H.127 is written with a two-operator minimum for a reason, she said.
“The intent in Vermont is to have multiple operators. That was something that was fairly clear in the sports betting study committee (which did its work last year). We wanted to have at least two operators and no more than six, given the fact that Vermont is such a small market. That was based on testimony from other states and (the state’s fiscal office) based on the population here as well as the potential market.
“It’s not going to be a state like New Jersey that can accommodate (nearly two dozen) operators,” said Knight.
By creating a competitive yet safe market, Knight said Vermont hopes to keep dollars in-state that are now being spent across the border on legal sports betting in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
“We want to make sure that we’re looking at how we move from illegal activity to regulated activity. And part of that is making the program attractive for operators as well as players, and making it competitive and safe,” she said.
