New Hampshire Launches Sports Betting
Published January 7, 2020 by Elana K
The New Hampshire State Lottery signed a contract with DraftKings in November, and in less than 2 months, sports betting was up and running.
New Hampshire was so eager to launch legal sports betting that it started on December 30, unable to wait even two days for the start of the new year. New Hampshire, in fact, has been moving pretty relatively quickly since governor Chris Sununu signed sports betting legislation in July. At the time, he said that sports betting would be up and running by the Super Bowl, and he has indeed come through.
Governor Sununu placed the first bet on his phone at a sports bar in Manchester. He bet on the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl.
DraftKings Takes Over New Hampshire
The New Hampshire State Lottery signed a contract with DraftKings in November, and in less than 2 months, sports betting was up and running. The deal is that New Hampshire will get 50% of sports betting revenue, which will go toward the state for its education program. In its first year of operation, sports betting is expected to generate $7.5 million for education and nearly double that two years later.
In a statement, Sununu said, "Sports betting is the right bet for New Hampshire. The launch of sports betting will also benefit our education system — a win for our kids.”
DraftKings is on a roll, having announced a few weeks ago that it will be going public through a merger with SBTech and Diamond Eagle Acquisition in the first half of 2020.
New England Sports Betting
At this point, New Hampshire and Rhode Island are the only two states in New England that have legalized sports betting. Both offer land-based betting and mobile betting.
