As soon as a month from now, people could be going to WarHorse Lincoln to place a bet on a baseball game, a golf tournament or dozens of other sporting events.
The Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission on Friday approved a sports wagering catalog that lays out what sports bettors will be able to wager on.
It includes most of the major team sports — MLB, the NBA, the NFL — as well as a number of other pro and college sports.
Included are professional golf and tennis, professional bull riding and rodeo, and motorsports.
The list also includes a number of college sports, including football, men's and women's basketball and volleyball, but also lacrosse, water polo, swimming and field hockey.
Tom Sage, executive director of the Racing and Gaming Commission, said the goal is to start with a reasonable amount of sports, make sure the operators and commission can handle the level of betting activity, and then consider expansions later.
"We felt it was better to start out slower, with less wagering types (and) less product to bet on," Sage said.
For example, the list contains no international sports, meaning no bets on this summer's FIFA Women's World Cup or any European soccer games.
"This catalog more than likely will grow," he said. "I was not comfortable to put in some of the sports I did not understand."
Sage said the main requirement is that any sport proposed to be added to the catalog has to be a sport and/or league that has a regulatory body.
Listen now and subscribe: | | | |
WarHorse Lincoln will likely be the first location to offer sports betting, but a start date is still up in the air.
Lynne McNally, CEO of the Nebraska Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which is a partner in the Lincoln casino with Ho-Chunk Inc., said the casino had hoped to start offering sports betting this month, but some of its vendors have not completed all of their necessary application materials.
McNally said WarHorse is now shooting for a mid-June start for betting.
"We would love to be able to accept bets on the College World Series," she said, which begins June 15.
The road to sports betting has been a long and winding one. It was approved by voters along with casino gambling in the November 2020 election, but the commission focused on getting casinos up and running first.
Sports betting rules finally went into effect at the beginning of February after Gov. Jim Pillen signed off on them.
The rules as approved by the Legislature require bets to be made in person at a casino and also do not allow people to bet on Nebraska college teams when they are playing in games in the state.
That prohibition will apply not only to the state's three Division 1 universities — Nebraska, Creighton and Omaha — but also to smaller colleges as well. Betting will be allowed on college basketball down to the Division 3 level and on college football down to the Division 2 level.
Sage said that as difficult as it was to get casinos started, it's been harder, at least from a regulatory standpoint, to get sports betting up and running.
"We all thought slot machines, table games and such was difficult to get going ... Sports wagering is double difficult to get going," he said.