Maryland To Launch Sports Betting On Thursday

• Some Maryland casinos will be able to offer sports betting by Thursday.
• Others will go live on Friday, in what is being described as a “soft launch”.
• Maryland’s process for sports betting regulation has been delayed more than a year.

BALTIMORE - Maryland is set to launch sports betting after significant delays caused them to miss most of the NFL season. Maryland Live! has partnered with FanDuel in order to offer sports betting as part of its Maryland Sports and Social offerings.

Several other casinos are also planning to offer sports betting by Friday, with Baltimore’s Horseshoe Casino among them.

Randy Conroy, Senior VP and GM of the Horseshoe Casino, is aiming for a launch on Friday.

"If all goes well and the lottery approves, we'll open to the public on Friday afternoon," Conroy said. "I think our team is ready for this. We'll expect to pass the final exam here with the lottery."

The Maryland sports betting  regulation process was delayed significantly for reasons that remain unclear to everyone. Even Maryland Governor Larry Hogan was bemused at the amount of time that the delays took, although he was happy that the sportsbooks would be up and running by NFL playoff time.

"The goal was to get it done before playoff season where they will make a heck of a lot of money for the state of Maryland,” Hogan said. “But I don’t know exactly why the commission couldn’t get its work done, but I think you should be able to place a bet today.”

Now that whatever gridlock held the commission in place has been broken, bets are expected to be placed as early as Thursday at some gambling locations in Maryland.

This process was described as a bit of a soft launch by John Martin, director of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. However, it seems like there will be continuity between this soft launch and the rest of Maryland’s sports betting industry, meaning that this soft launch is the actual effective start date.

"Think of it as a soft launch,” Martin said. “We invite customers in the casinos, invite their customers in, and they go through all of the mechanisms of sports wagering just to make sure everything is addressed properly and we're ready to go. It has been a process over a year in the making. We are just thrilled sports wagering will be starting in Maryland here this week."

With the number of delays that have occurred in the process, fans of legal gambling are no doubt thrilled as well.