Sports betting signed into law in Kentucky; Here's when you may be able to bet

Yesterday, the Kentucky legislature finally passed a bill to legalize sports betting. This morning, Governor Andy Beshear signed the bill into law. Now, the question becomes, when will you be able to legally bet on a game in Kentucky?

Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer called KSR today to give listeners a rough timeline. According to Thayer, the bill goes into effect 90 days from now, so June 28. From there, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHC) has six months to figure out the regulations to make it work. Once they do, Thayer said that you’ll be able to place bets at sportsbooks at horse racing tracks and via online apps (FanDuel, DraftKings, etc.). You will also be able to bet on in-state teams, including your University of Kentucky Wildcats, which was under debate in previous bills.

Thayer believes one of the sportsbooks will be at Red Mile in Lexington, and the KHC will be motivated to get the regulations in place much sooner than six months, possibly by the start of football season.

“There are two aspects. The brick-and-mortar locations are the race tracks, which is consistent with other states that have brick-and-mortar sports books,” Thayer told KSR. “They’re either at racetracks, professional sports facilities, or casinos. We don’t have any of the two latter but we have racetracks. So my guess is there will be a sports book at the Red Mile that will be jointly operated by Keeneland and the Red Mile, just like they jointly operate simulcasting and the historical horse racing gaming hall there.

“Now, will it take six months to get it up and running? That I don’t know. My guess is there’s going to be tremendous pressure from the public to be up and running by the time the NFL season kicks off in September. Now, I don’t know if that’s gonna happen. That’s what everybody’s asking me. ‘Will I be able to bet on the NFL?’ I don’t know. It’s going to be out of my hands and it’s going to be between the race tracks and the racing commission.”

What will a sportsbook in Kentucky look like? Thayer said each race track will be able to partner with three “skins,” aka sports betting providers like FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesar’s, Bally’s, MGM, etc. You’ll be able to sign up online or at the sportsbook.

“Each racetrack license will be able to negotiate terms with up to three of the skins. I think you’ll probably see FanDuel as a major player and people will be able to sign up online, just like in every other state. Like in Tennessee, Tennessee has no brick-and-mortar [sportsbooks] but they have online.”

Thayer noted that Red Mile already has space set aside for a sportsbook, so on that front, they will be prepared to move quickly to get things rolling; however, the timeline also depends on the KHC creating the blueprint.

“If you’ve been to the Red Mile, you can see they’ve got space there where they were thinking ahead about having a sports book,” Thayer said. “I think the big issue is coming up with the regulatory structure. Chairman Rabinowitz and his team at the racing commission are great at that. I mean, they oversee live horse racing, simulcasting, advanced deposit wagering, and historical horse racing. They’re probably gonna have to bring on some more people to do it.

“But I think there’s going to be an incentive to move as quickly as possible and get the brick and mortar and the online up as fast as possible because I think this is going to be driven by the market. I think people are really going to want to be able to do this by football season.”

Fingers crossed.