Maine Sports Betting to Launch on Friday, Nov. 3, at 9 a.m.

• The Maine Gambling Control Unit announced sports betting will launch on Friday, Nov. 3, at 9 a.m.
• Account registration for licensed operators will open today
• DraftKing and Caesars Sportsbook are the only two licensed operators in Maine

Maine sports betting will launch on Friday, Nov. 3, at 9 a.m., according to the Maine Gambling Control Unit.

The department made the announcement this morning on its X social media feed, directing readers to a story published on WGME.

The Pine Tree State has been waiting on sports betting since Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed the bill in law in May 2022. The final sports betting rules were reviewed by the Maine Attorney General’s Office and have been finalized by the Secretary of State.

Two Maine Sports Betting Operators

Maine currently has two licensed sports betting operators, DraftKings and Caesars Sportsbook, both of which will open account registration sometime today.

It’s been a long journey for Maine sports betting. After Mills signed the bill, legislation officially went into law on August 2022. State regulators initially predicted Maine’s sports betting rules would take between eight months to a year-and-a-half to draft.

It took the state 14 months to draft the sports betting rules and submit them to the Attorney General Office.

Bill LD 585 gives the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Mi’Kmak Nation, and Maliseet Tribes exclusive control over online sports betting in the state and also legalizes retail sports betting for state casinos and off-track betting establishments. Each tribe is able to partner with up to one online sportsbook operator.

The Mi’kmak Nation, Maliseet Tribe, and Penobscot Nation have all partnered with Caesars Sportsbook for their retail and online sports betting services.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe announced yesterday it had agreed to a deal with DraftKings sportsbook.

The tribes will control an estimated 85% of the sports betting market in the state, as online sports betting comprises the vast majority of all sports betting markets. The bill also included concessions to the tribes, such as tax relief and consultation rights with the state for issues that would directly affect their affairs.

The bill does not allow Maine sports bettors to place wagers on Maine colleges or esports of any kind.

A Multi-Year Process for Legalization

In 2021, Maine legislators approved bill LD 1352, which would have legalized statewide in-person and online sports betting. However, it was never brought to Mills for a signature and it never became law. The bill had a strange journey to approval, as its original sponsor Senator Louis Luchini (D-7) actually spoke up in the 2021 session and asked that legislators vote his bill down. Luchini originally wrote his bill as not having a tethering requirement for online sports betting, which became a controversial point of the betting plan.

Luchini’s original draft of the bill proposed a Maine sports betting plan that would open the state to an uncapped amount of online sports betting licenses that would not have to be tethered or partnered to a brick-and-mortar facility.

Tethering is “anti-competitive and anti-free market,” he explained last year.