Florida Senator Submits Three Sports Betting Legislation Bills

Jeff Brandes, Florida’s Governor, has submitted three bills in state senate that should help propel sports betting in the southern state. The bills were submitted this Monday, November 18th.

SB 968, SB 970 and SB 972 seek to regulate this gambling vertical and permit state lottery and private companies to obtain a license for that. Retail and online wagering would be allowed according to any of these three bills.

Each Bill Outlines Important Details

SB 968 is setting the main framework for sports betting in Florida…

…and according to it, Department of the Lottery would be in charge of developing and enforcing regulations that will put sports betting market in motion.

This particular bill states that a licensee may “have individually branded websites for the purposes of offering a sports pool, each of which may have an accompanying mobile application bearing the same brand.”

SB 970 outlines the fee needed to be paid for obtaining the application license. It would cost $100,000. It also goes into detail regarding the taxes for sports betting. Operators will need to pay 15% in gross gaming taxes, which will be invested in education and istrative expenditures.

A Referendum is Needed

Florida residents have, in November 2018, approved an amendment that requires any sports betting legalizing laws to be followed by a referendum. If these three bills the legislature, the sports betting referendum could be put to voters in November 2020.

Referendum for ratifying the sports betting legislation was already used in Colorado…

…with California leaning towards this as well.

Better Collective Acquisition of Florida Sites

Better Collective, US gaming operator, has acquired assets of two Florida-based sports betting sites – Vegas Insider and Scores and Odds. The news of this was reported in July.

The purchase was made for $20 million in cash and is a second deal for this company that has already bought Rotogrinder Network for $21 million.

CEO and co-founder of Better Collective, Jesper Sogaard, commented on the purchase:

“With the acquisition of the two mega-brands, VegasInsider.com and ScoresAndOdds.com, Better Collective is paving the way to expand the position as the market leading sports betting information company to include the US .”

Source:

“Florida Senator submits sports betting legislation”, igbnorthamerica.com, November 19, 2019.