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SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - Basically a state in your neck of the woods,
00:04 so you have a lot of familiarity with the state of Virginia.
00:07 Your sports betting professionally, a really easy scenario,
00:11 collegiate athletes and college sports betting,
00:14 definitely a completely different story.
00:16 What is the latest going on with this new bill
00:19 that's being proposed?
00:20 - Yeah, so currently you can't bet
00:22 on in-state colleges in Virginia.
00:24 Bill, fairly simple, would change that.
00:27 So you'd be able to bet on Virginia,
00:29 Virginia Tech, JMU, all those different colleges in Virginia.
00:33 I think the reason there,
00:34 there's potential revenue increase certainly,
00:37 but also just protections for the athletes.
00:39 Having those markets regulated,
00:41 I think legislators are starting to think
00:43 maybe that's actually better for protecting the athletes
00:46 from whether it's online harassment
00:49 or potential match fixing type of thing.
00:53 So it's just a way to protect them a little bit better,
00:56 bring in a little more revenue as well.
00:58 We'll see if it actually gets passed.
01:00 Similar effort failed in 2022.
01:03 - Do you think, Bennett,
01:05 that this is something that if Virginia
01:08 gets pushed across the goal line,
01:10 that other states would follow suit?
01:12 Because I find it hard to believe
01:14 that some of the sports book operators around the country
01:17 are simply willing to, say, lose money
01:20 on their sports book handle.
01:22 - I think it could.
01:24 I think it's one where if you can show,
01:26 if you're Virginia,
01:27 the athletes are thoroughly protected
01:29 for many of those, I guess, potential concerns
01:31 that people have and brings in a little more revenue.
01:34 Obviously the operators like it, like you mentioned,
01:36 that I do think it's one where
01:38 if Virginia can get this across,
01:39 you might have some other states that follow suit.
01:41 And certainly you've also got a lot of states in the country
01:43 that already do and already are okay with
01:46 in-state colleges allowing betting on those teams.
01:49 - Yeah, and that's the dynamic that we'll have to see.
01:52 I know New Jersey does not, but some other states do.
01:55 So, you know, state by, this is the Wild West sports betting.
01:58 It's like a state by state situation,
01:59 but perhaps if some safeguards are in place,
02:02 this would help.
02:03 All right, let's go over to North Carolina.
02:06 And I know that there's been some back and forth
02:08 and meetings trying to figure out
02:10 what is going on exactly
02:11 and how sports betting will operate.
02:12 I know the lottery has also been involved as well.
02:15 What is the timeline here there?
02:17 - It looks like March.
02:19 So nothing official yet from the lottery.
02:22 But you've got operators that have sort of dropped hints
02:24 in some various press releases recently.
02:27 I think Fanatic said they're expecting March.
02:30 BetMGM was a little more vague.
02:31 They said Q1.
02:33 They've already stated the lottery.
02:35 That is that a Super Bowl,
02:36 pre-Super Bowl launch is not happening,
02:38 but pre-March madness seems like a realistic goal.
02:41 So still nothing official there.
02:44 I think the lottery meets again at the end of January.
02:47 So maybe we'll get an official timeline then,
02:48 but sort of based on what the operators are saying,
02:51 I think what they're expecting,
02:53 sort of industry stakeholders are hearing maybe early March,
02:56 which would be before March madness, certainly,
02:58 which means quite a lot to the state of North Carolina,
03:01 where you can make an argument
03:02 that the four best teams in the ACC right now
03:05 for men's basketball play in the state.
03:07 So there would be a lot of betting action and interest
03:10 from fans in North Carolina
03:11 if they're ready before March madness.
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