Georgia Sports Betting – Will Sports Betting Launch in Georgia?

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Is sports betting legal in Georgia?

No. Georgia sports betting is not legal despite multiple efforts in the Georgia Assembly. Given that sports betting bills passed through the Georgia Legislature in 2021 and gained some momentum in 2022 and 2023, it’s not a reach to believe that legally betting on sports is in the future for Georgians.

What’s happening in Georgia sports betting right now

• Oct. 24, 2023 – Representatives of the Entain Foundation, which owns half of BetMGM in the US, reportedly met with state legislators to talk about gambling expansion in Georgia.
• Oct. 2, 2023 – Six people were arrested in Tifton after allegedly participating in illegal gambling activity.
• Sept. 13, 2023 – Daily fantasy sports app PrizePicks is asking a Georgia court to dismiss a case that alleges the app is run by stolen third-party software.
• Sept. 11, 2023 – The two-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs football team sit atop the AP Top 25 rankings through two weeks with a 2-0 record.
• July 25, 2023 – University of Georgia alum Brian Harman won the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool golf club in England. Harman had the lead after 36 holes and did not relinquish it through the weekend.
• June 26, 2023 – PrizePicks is being sued in Georgia for allegedly stealing the technology it uses to offer player prop-style, over-under fantasy sports games.
• March 30, 2023 – Georgia’s state legislative session ended without passing the lone active sports betting bill, HB 237.

The status of Georgia sports betting

2023 brought more hope and bills to legalize sports betting in Georgia. However, the Georgia Senate voted against multiple bills, SB 57 and SR 140, while the House let its legislation, HB 380, die without a vote.

Legislative efforts to legalize sports betting continued their success in 2022, even if the session ended without consensus. In March, Rep. Ron Stephens amended two gambling bills passed by the Senate in 2021, both approved by a House committee. One bill proposed a voter referendum to allow all types of gambling, while the other enabled mobile and retail sports betting legislation. However, SR135 was replaced and SB142 never reached the House floor.

Legal sports betting in Georgia has strong support from a coalition of Atlanta professional sports teams, including the Atlanta Hawks. At a late-session hearing in 2021, Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin called sports betting an important part of teams’ efforts to engage with fans during a difficult time in professional sports. In May that same year, US sports betting heavyweight FanDuel announced it planned to open an IT and production facility in Atlanta.

Still, gambling could be a tough sell in Georgia. It is one of the few states that does not have commercial or tribal casinos. An effort to put the question of allowing casino gambling in front of voters in 2020 also failed.

When will online sports betting be legal in Georgia?

Online sports betting would launch in Georgia no earlier than late 2024 or 2025 if approved during next year’s legislative session.

A wrinkle is that voters must also approve any measure to make the amendment law. Even under the assumption that sports betting would receive the go-ahead, it would likely be several months before the Georgia Lottery could promulgate regulations for the new industry, issue licenses, and allow operators to launch.

Sportsbook apps that could launch in Georgia

With so much uncertainty, it’s difficult to know which sportsbooks will come to Georgia and begin offering the top sports betting promos. The failed 2021, 2022 and 2023 legislative efforts allowed for the possibility of at least six online operators. Without any gambling venues in the state, these apps would be the only way to bet on sports legally. This exclusivity and Georgia’s population make it an attractive target for most sportsbook companies. However, here are some of the likely candidates to debut when online sports betting arrives in GA:

• FanDuel — Its IT hub investment and presence in Georgia for DFS play make FanDuel near-certain to open its sports betting doors in the state when the opportunity comes. It also serves sports bettors in nearby Tennessee, the closest sports betting-friendly location to Georgia’s largest city, Atlanta.
• DraftKings — DraftKings also offers its daily fantasy sports play to Georgia residents and is often among the vanguard of sportsbook apps to launch in new states. Like FanDuel, DK is also available in neighboring Tennessee and is quick to launch in states that offer competitive licensing.
• BetMGM — BetMGM Sportsbook is usually among early adopters in new markets, which makes it an odds-on favorite to show up in Georgia as soon as possible. BetMGM is part of the market to the north in Tennessee, too, so it’s likely that the book already has some cachet and brand recognition within areas of Georgia.
• Caesars — Caesars Sportsbook is one of the largest sportsbook operations in the country and has significant resources to pursue opportunities in new areas. Its properties in North Carolina are the nearest full-service casinos to those living in northern Georgia, including the residents of Atlanta, Athens, and Augusta.
• BetRivers — BetRivers Sportsbook might not be a familiar name for many in the South, but the app has battled successfully to prove itself in other areas of the country. There’s little reason to assume Rush Street Interactive would pass on Georgia if available.
• PointsBet — PointsBet is an Australian sportsbook that is one of the more successful foreign sportsbook companies to come to the US as sports betting has spread. The company is often at the forefront of launches in new states.

GA sports betting bills

Despite Georgia’s past resistance to gambling, lawmakers in the Peach State have been diligently working to pass legislation for sports betting since 2020. In the years since, there have been a number of different bills that have sought in various ways to authorize sports betting for Georgia’s citizens. The list below is a running list of those efforts:

• HB 237
• SB403
• HB903 – Amendments as part of an unrelated parking bill
• HB86
• SR135
• SB142
• SB 57
• HB 380
• SR 140

As more bills proceed through the Georgia Legislature, we will update this list.

Most popular sports to bet on in Georgia

Georgia has three major professional sports teams in Atlanta and a popular soccer club, but a college team reigns supreme in the state.

NCAA betting in Georgia

Georgia is in the middle of SEC country, where NCAA football is king.

The Georgia Bulldogs are arguably the top program in the country as the two-time defending national champions. The team’s 37 bowl victories are tied for the second-most of any college football program after Alabama.

While Bulldogs football tops the list, there are several NCAA Division I schools competing in the state:

• University of Georgia
• Georgia State University
• Georgia Southern University
• Georgia Tech
• Kennesaw State University
• Mercer University

MLB betting in Georgia

The Atlanta Braves have had more success than the other Atlanta professional teams combined. Founded in 1871 as Boston Red Stockings, the Braves are one of the National League‘s two remaining charter franchises. Moving to Atlanta in 1966, the Braves are the only Major League Baseball team to win the World Series for three cities, winning in Atlanta in 1995 and 2021. The Braves also won the NL East all five seasons from 2018-2022.

NFL betting in Georgia

In 2016, the Atlanta Falcons nearly brought the city its first Super Bowl championship since joining the NFL in 1966. The high-flying birds lost to the New England Patriots in the first-ever Super Bowl to go to overtime. The Falcons have won their division, the NFC South, four times since the league realigned in 2002, but they have not made the playoffs since 2017.

NBA betting in Georgia

The Hawks haven’t won an NBA championship since moving to city in 1968, but they’ve had their fair share of success, making the playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons from 2008 to 2017.

MLS betting in Georgia

Atlanta United is the city’s newest team, joining MLS as an expansion team in 2017. But they immediately captured the love of Georgians, setting attendance records and winning the city’s first sports championship in 25 years with the MLS Cup in 2018 and adding the Campeones Cup.

Legal betting options in Georgia

There are no legal betting options in Georgia. In fact, there are few gambling options in general. Georgians and visitors to the state have the Georgia Lottery, which allows for the sale of tickets online. There are also charitable games such as bingo. But most betting options are non-existent and prohibited in the state.

Any websites that will take your bet in Georgia are illegal offshore websites that don’t hold a license from any US jurisdiction. Without state regulation, these offshore betting apps can’t be counted on to pay out winnings and have been known to disappear with people’s money. The only safe and protected way to bet on sports in the US is with a licensed operator.

Georgia and daily fantasy sports

While daily fantasy sports are unregulated in Georgia, Underdog, PrizePicks, DraftKings and FanDuel operate in the state.

Georgia came close to legalizing DFS in 2017. The House passed a bill, but the Senate didn’t bring it up for a vote. A previous attorney general ruling questioned the legality of DFS in Georgia. Things have been quiet since, but no news appears to be good news as the state’s current leadership seems fine with allowing fantasy sports to continue.

Is horse racing legal in Georgia?

Horse racing is legal in Georgia, but there are no permanent racetracks and horse betting is illegal. The Georgia Steeplechase and Hawkinsville Harness Festival are two annual horse racing events in the state.

Several legislative attempts were made in recent years to add horse betting. The Georgia Horse Racing Coalition seeks to bring racetracks and pari-mutuel wagering to the Peach State. But they haven’t made it far. A 2020 bill that would have put the question of horse racing on the November ballot failed. In 2021, a similar effort in the Georgia Senate also failed. SR131 proposed an amendment to the Georgia Constitution that would have allowed wagering to proceed at “licensed racetracks and betting facilities.” However, the proposal failed to progress beyond its initial reading and committee referral.

The most recent attempt to legalize pari-mutuel betting in Georgia occurred in February 2022. A Georgia Senate committee held a hearing but the bill did not advance much farther.

Georgia sports betting timeline

2023

Another year, another legislative session with high hopes surrounding the possibility of legal sports betting in Georgia. SB 57,  HB 380 and SR 140 were all introduced during the legislative session and seemed to have decent backing from some legislators. However, all three died on March 6, 2023 with HB 380 not even receiving a vote in the House. The Senate voted down the other two bills, sending legislators back to the drawing board with the hopes of getting something passed in 2024.

2022

The legislative year began with high hopes. In January, House Speaker David Ralston suggested allowing Georgians to vote on whether they want casino gaming in the state and figure out what it looks like if the answer is yes. There was an appetite to pass a gambling bill in 2022 that has not been there before, he added.

Rep. Ron Stephens tried to amend two pieces of gambling legislature passed by the Senate in 2021 in SR135 and SB142. SR135 would have put gambling on the November ballot for Georgians to approve, while SB142 legalized sports betting. Unfortunately, those efforts were stymied, and the session ended on April 4 with no gambling bills passed. The next session began in January 2023.

Meanwhile, efforts in neighboring North Carolina heated up in April before falling apart a few weeks later. This would’ve given Georgia residents another legal sports betting option beyond Tennessee sportsbook apps.

2021

Rep. Ron Stephens redoubled his efforts in the new session and unveiled HB86 as a follow-up to last year’s bill. The bill proposed online-only sports betting, remote registration, and up to six licensees. However, the new bill did not allow for collegiate wagering.

Stephens’ colleagues in the Senate did not wait for HB86 to navigate through the House committee system and offered their own bill, SB142. The bill was similar to the House version, but notably diverged on the subject of betting on college games. SB142 and its companion, SR135 (which puts the question on a referendum for voters), passed through the Senate in early March 2021.

The end of the legislative session on March 31, loomed over the bills’ proceeding through the House. Because of disagreements about a controversial voting rights bill signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp, sports betting was drawn into a political battle along partisan lines. The arguments were so contentious that, at one point, the NAACP publicly announced its opposition to sports betting in Georgia. Thus, despite their passage through the Georgia Senate, both measures did not progress past committee in the House of Representatives.

2020

Georgia got off to a late start in making an effort to legalize sports wagering. Lawmakers didn’t take an interest in GA sports betting until neighboring Tennessee legalized the activity.

In February, a group of Senators dropped S 403, an online-only sports betting bill similar to what passed in Tennessee. The bill called for a 10% tax rate and $900,000 annual license fee.

That bill died in committee, but facing an unforeseen budget crisis as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers revived the proposal late in the session by amending the language on to a bill that was still alive.

Rep. Stephens followed suit by putting his H 378 into an unneeded Senate bill. His legislation would have put the question of legalizing sports betting, casinos and horse racing on the ballot to give voters the opportunity to amend the state constitution to allow the activities. But constitutional amendments require a difficult-to-reach two-thirds vote in the legislature.

Stephens believes that the gambling expansions would be widely approved by voters if only they could get on the ballot. Unfortunately, none of these efforts proved unsuccessful, as the 2020 legislative session ended without any forward motion on the amendments.

Georgia sports betting FAQ

Who would oversee sports betting in Georgia?

The Georgia Lottery. As is the case in states without many avenues of legal gambling, the lottery commission in the Peach State serves as the de facto gaming commission. SB142 designated the Georgia Lottery as the oversight agency for the new industry.

What is the legal gambling age in Georgia?

For the limited gambling in Georgia, the legal gambling age is 18. However, sports betting in Georgia will certainly require players to be 21, as all of the most successful attempts to legalize so far have included language to that effect.

Will mobile GA sports betting be allowed?

Yes, with no casinos in the state, Georgia has been exploring the Tennessee model of having sports betting only take place online.

There are some sports betting websites that say they accept bets from the United States. Are those legal options?

No. There are currently no sportsbook operators licensed at the federal level. All US sportsbooks are licensed at the state level. Any website suggesting it allows betting from anywhere in the US is a website that operators offshore. It’s not legal for those sites to accept bets from US citizens. They offer no protection to those who bet on them.