After weeks and months of speculation the New York Gaming Commission has approved the initial raft of online sports betting sites to accept mobile sports bets from Saturday 8th January 2022.

New York becomes the latest state to allow sports betting following the United States Supreme Court's decision in May 2018 to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) which made sports betting illegal.

Bookies DraftKings, Caesars, Rush Street and FanDuel will open their online portals for sports betting business from New York residents this weekend. With the NFL betting season in full swing and College Football reaching play off stages it’s great timing for New Yorkers to get involved with fully legal New York sports betting from the comfort of their own homes for the first time ever.

Since 2019, sports betting had been allowed only when physically within a land-based casino, but in November of 2021, the New York Gaming Commission moved to allow up to nine mobile sports betting operators to accept customers across the fourth largest state in the US.

Only four will go live this weekend with the remaining five of WynnBet, Poinstbet, Gentings, Ballys and powerhouse BetMGM to follow soon as they meet the regulatory thresholds set in the coming days, weeks and months.

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Mobile Sports Betting Hailed “Great News” For New York

In a hugely positive move for the State of New York, the Senator Joseph Addabo hailed the progress of sports betting in New York as “great news” and that it would generate revenue to support “funding for education, addiction programs, youth sports as well as new jobs.”

Previously with only on-site gambling on sports permitted for Americans, many had taken to offshore wagering which comes with obvious issues in terms of legality, dispute resolution, deposit and withdrawal issues and clearly a sub par experience for those that want to bet across American sports events.

With the tax rates set at 51% over the next 10 years for New York sports betting operators to contribute to NY State finances, it is suggested that close to $500m could be generated as early as 2025.

Which Other States Allow Legal Sports Betting In America?

New York is set to join an ever growing group of states that permit sports and casino wagering across America and is the first to come on stream in 2022. Not all offer mobile betting yet, and some options to residents vary greatly since the repeal of PASPA (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) allowed states to pave the way for betting on sports if they so wished to do so.

Currently, a form of legalised betting on sports like the MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL are available in some form in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Whilst in some of the states mentioned above, in person on-site options, physical sign up, and the number of operators currently available, still make the navigation of account opening difficult, the State of New York has made it simple with mobile sports betting operators set to open the doors this weekend to anyone with access to the internet and keen to get involved.

Expect more states across America to follow suit and permit legalized sports betting in 2022, but New York seems to have got the timing just right for sport-watching New Yorkers to enjoy the option of online sports wagering just as the prime sporting events come to boiling point and entertainment levels spike.

Account registration gets underway now with the four operators ready to go in advance of the first bets to be placed in New York, which will be taken from 9am ET on Saturday, January 8th 2022.

You can check out these sites here via our betting offers page if you are based in New York – or other operators if you are based elsewhere and want to start betting legally online with the best bookmakers and sportsbooks near you.