That means it won’t be so simple and clean for the leagues to monitor betting on their games. The sports betting landscape is going to be messy for a while, as some states rush to follow New Jersey and others don’t. This is why the case was called Christie vs NCAA et al (renamed in 2018 for new governor Phil Murphy).įans watch the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament at the Westgate Superbook sports book in Las Vegas on March 15, 2018. They wanted it legalized at the federal level, not on a state-by-state basis. But there’s some nuance here: Even though the NBA and other leagues wanted legalized sports betting in America, the NBA, NCAA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all opposed New Jersey’s case, and even sued to stop New Jersey from winning. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred followed suit, if not as vocally. The NBA has led the charge of leagues openly advocating for legalized sports betting, ever since NBA Commissioner Adam Silver argued for it in a New York Times op-ed in 2014.
Here’s a quick guide of what’s likely to happen next.
So, what does this all mean for an average sports fan who might want to place money on a game and has held off because it wasn’t legal in their state? What does it mean for the major US pro sports leagues, or for the popular daily fantasy sports companies that spent two years battling legal cases that accused them of being betting operators?
