- Mobile sports betting and gaming will go live in Michigan on Friday, January 22.
- Nine operators have been authorized to offer wagering at the outset.
- Michigan legalized retail sports betting in 2019.
The United States sports betting rollout has been a decidedly mixed bag so far. For every state that has done a credible job with implementation like Colorado or Iowa there are at least two that have been a complete trainwreck like Tennessee or the District of Columbia. At some point, states will (hopefully) realize that lottery commissions are simply not qualified to provide oversight of–let alone create–a successful sports betting regulatory framework.
Michigan will launch online and Internet sports betting on Friday and we’re guardedly optimistic that the state will end up doing it right. Retail sports betting began in 2019 but the launch of the mobile component was delayed while regulations were worked out. The tax rate for online sports betting is a reasonable 8.4% (though the tax rate for casino games is significantly higher at between 20 and 28%). The Detroit based casinos will have to pay a bit more to help satiate the endless revenue needs of the dysfunctional Motor City. I’ll spare you the mind-numbing list of who gets what percentage of the tax take.
The state has licensed nine mobile sports book operators at launch with more on the way. Most, if not all, of these should be ready to go live on Friday:
- Draft Kings
- William Hill
- Barstool Sports (Penn National)
- TwinSpires
- Golden Nugget Online Gaming
- BetRivers (Rush Street Interactive)
- BetMGM (Roar Digital)
- FanDuel
- WynnBET
All of the companies in this list will also provide casino gaming with the exception of Barstool Sports, which operates under the gaming license of Detroit’s Greektown Casino.
If you want to dig deeper into the licensing and regulations in Michigan as well as take a look at the wagering catalog you can do so here:
MICHIGAN GAMING CONTROL BOARD
State sports betting regulations only allow for one brand per licensee but with 25 tribal properties in the state offering Class III gaming that could produce a decent variety of options.
