Arizona Coyotes seeks sports betting law change for temporary stadium
The ice hockey team is seeking a change to allow them to keep running their mobile sports betting operation when they move to Arizona State University for three seasons.
US.- The Arizona Coyotes ice hockey team is seeking to amend the state’s law on sports betting to allow them to keep running their mobile sports betting operation when they move to a temporary home at Arizona State University (ASU) next season.
The Coyotes will move from Glendale to Arizona State University’s hockey arena for three seasons, while a new $1.7bn home arena is built on a 40-acre site in Tempe. According to the National Hockey League (NHL) team, a change in the law change is needed because ASU’s arena has a capacity for 5,000 people, but current sports betting legislation requires facilities to seat at least 10,000.
The Arizona Indian Gaming Association and multiple Native American tribes oppose a last-minute measure approved by the Arizona Senate’s appropriations committee that would allow the Coyotes to operate using an online licence. They argue that the 2021 law that legalised sports betting was part of a complex deal they negotiated with governor Doug Ducey that updated the tribal gaming compact.
the Coyotes’ Andrew Diss said: “When you ask 10 different attorneys the same question, you get 10 different answers. That does not give us a sense of comfort that we’re going to be able to maintain our online gaming license if we move to a facility with less than 10,000 people. That is what this comes down to.”
The attorney Bradley Bledsoe Downes, who represents the Arizona Indian Gaming Association, commented: “That was a compromise by the tribes and as well as the professional leagues and teams, and to go back and change that understanding, especially less than a year later, for something that is really self-created … shouldn’t land at this body to address.”
In January, the Arizona Coyotes and Meruelo Gaming, an affiliate of the Sahara Las Vegas and Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada, announced the launch of SaharaBets, Arizona’s newest digital sports betting platform.
Arizona’s sportsbooks brought in nearly $300m in wagers in their debut month in September. Legalised in April 2021, Arizona’s online and retail sportsbooks accepted $291.2m in wagers in September, according to data released by the Arizona Department of Gaming.
The busiest first-month launch record for any state before that was $131.4m set by Tennessee in November 2020. Arizona’s record has since been superseded by New York.
See also: Arizona sportsbooks take record $499m in wagers in December
