Illinois lawmakers announced tweaks to their sports betting law on Friday and a couple of the tweaks will have significant impacts on sports bettors in the state.
For starters, sports bettors in the state of Illinois will no longer have to register in-person at retail sportsbooks. Starting March 5, they will be able to register online or mobile.
The in-person law granted a major advantage to BetRivers, whose casino is located much closer to the city of Chicago than competitors FanDuel and DraftKings. It will also make it much easier for bettors to have multiple accounts on different platforms.
The other major tweak was allowing bettors in the state to bet on in-state college teams. Sports bettors were originally banned from betting on the games that involved in-state schools to avoid putting the athletes at risk.
Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman vehemently opposed the tweak to the law saying it could put additional pressure on athletes.
But the new law comes with a caveat, bets placed on games involving in-state schools have to be placed at retail sportsbooks and not through mobile wagering. There will also be no wagering on individual performances such as player props for games involving schools in the state.
The new tweaks also allows for a retail sportsbook at Wintrust Arena–the homecourt of DePaul University and WNBA’s Chicago Sky.
The Illinois sports betting industry has already skyrocketed to one of the country’s three-largest sports-betting markets after launching in March 2020. These new tweaks to the law should allow for the market to grow even bigger.
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