“There's a couple of risks that could be detrimental to the industry's growth and success. One of those is the threat of rising tax rates. A couple of states including Ohio have
floated raising the tax rate on sports betting. That would be hugely problematic because sports betting is a low margin, very volatile business and
raising tax rates isn't a silver bullet in terms of tax revenue for a state. It's an addition to your tax revenue. We're hopeful this isn't going to gain a lot of traction."
footprint than some of the other states. Tey've had a strong start too and I'm excited to see how they're adjusting because they are already changing their regulatory system a little bit. Tey've been very proactive on that front.
Other states that have legalised “early” like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Michigan are comparably mature to the rest of the US. Tey're interesting to follow because they now have nearly six years of experience in how the American bettor behaves and what their interests are. Tey've been leading a second wave of regulation to streamline getting products to market and enhance protection needed to keep players safe. It's interesting to compare the new states to the mature states, so to speak, and see how they're approaching these issues.
I wouldn't say any state's really plateauing right now, but there's a couple of risks that could be detrimental to the industry's growth and success. One of those is the threat of rising tax rates. A couple of states including Ohio have floated raising the tax rate on sports betting. Tat would be hugely problematic because sports betting is a low margin, very volatile business and raising tax rates isn't a silver bullet in terms of tax revenue for a state. It's an addition to your tax revenue. We're hopeful this isn't going to gain a lot of traction.
Te other issue is the new concerns over betting on college sports, especially prop betting. Several state and federal lawmakers have raised this as an issue recently. People love betting on college sports and by doing it in a legal, regulated market we're uncovering integrity issues.
Removing it from legal regulated sportsbooks is bad for bettors because they're going to go to the black market to bet on the sports they love, it's bad for the sports because it means you no longer have this transparent space within the legal industry where we work with the leagues to educate the teams, schools, and law enforcement to root out these issues. Tose are the two big issues we're watching carefully.
What regulatory developments is OpenBet keeping a close eye on?
We're down to four states with pending legislation this year and I think the only one that has a chance is Minnesota which has a longer and more complicated legislative process. Te tribal community will be key to getting that done. Unfortunately, Georgia fell apart just a couple of days ago with the end of the session. I think this year's going to be relatively quiet.
We're thinking years ahead at this point in terms of legislative sessions and watching the big states like California and Texas. Texas will be back in session next year. In California we're looking at 2026. Some of the other key states like Missouri and Oklahoma will likely make progress in 2026, maybe 2025. Oklahoma is a huge gaming state and Missouri has a big footprint too.
We had a wave of legalisation for the first five years, but now we're getting into states where the public policy issues that drive legalisation are much more complicated and it's just going to take more time.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P79
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