Tennessee is getting two more sports betting operators, but they will not be available for Super Bowl Sunday sports betting next week.
WynnBet and William Hill were approved Friday during a special meeting of the Sports Wagering Committee of the Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) Corp. Board of Directors. They are the sixth and seventh operators to gain approval in Tennessee.
Churchill Downs, which operates TwinSpires (formerly BetAmerica), was approved in early January as an operator, but no launch date has been set. William Hill is expected to launch in late February.
An issue for one of the newly approved operators (which wasn’t identified) is that its server was in downtown Nashville. It was affected by the Christmas Day explosion a little more than a month ago. The explosion occurred in the Second Avenue Commercial District where a recreational vehicle exploded, injuring at least three people and damaging dozens of buildings.
The issue will not be resolved in time for next Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Seven Approved Operators in Tennessee
Tennessee now has seven approved sports betting platforms. BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and Tennessee Action 24/7 launched on Nov. 1 and have seen about $312 million in handle in the first two months.
Ten vendors were also approved during Friday’s meeting.
Earlier this week, Tennessee released its December sports betting numbers and the state saw a huge increase across the board in just its second month of online wagering. With no casinos, Tennessee is the first state to have an all-mobile sports betting market.
More than $180M December Handle
TEL, which oversees the licensing and regulation of online sports betting in the state, reported December totals Tuesday that showed from Dec. 1-31 the state’s gross wagers (total handle) was $180.9 million.
December was a 37.7% increase over November’s $131.4 million (its first month of operation). Gross payouts were $167 million, a solid 41% increase over November’s $118.2 million.
The state’s privilege tax in December was $3.1 million, a 29.2% increase over November’s 2.4 million, according to the TEL’s totals for sports betting taxes and wagering.
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