In North Carolina, the basketball-wild jurisdiction got its online sports betting infrastructure up and running just in time for March Madness.
Of the 12 sports betting licensees, eight went live March 11. They all paid $1 million for the privilege.
The eight operators and their partners include:
- Bet365 paired with the Charlotte Hornets
- BetMGM paired with the Charlotte Motor Speedway
- Caesars paired with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
- DraftKings paired with NASCAR and its speedway
- ESPN BET paired with Quail Hollow Club, part of the PGA Tour
- Fanatics Sportsbook paired with the Carolina Hurricanes
- FanDuel paired with the PGA Tour for market access and the Carolina Panthers as a “sportsbook partner”
- Underdog paired with Sedgefield Country Club, another part of the PGA Tour
“We were kind of aware that they were going to legalize; it was just a matter of when,” Dr. Michelle L. Malkin, founder and director of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative at East Carolina University, told ESPN. “North Carolina tends to be a state that’s a little more cautious around gambling.”
