Application process opens

The New Hampshire Lottery Commission is accepting applications for a total of 15 sports betting licenses.

As part of the sports betting legislation, there are ten licenses up for grabs for those operating retail sportsbooks. There are also five licenses available for online sportsbooks.

Operators will have until 4pm on September 16 to submit applications for one of these licenses. The vetting process will then last until November, when those granted licenses will be informed.

Locations yet to be determined

There is no definite guidance in place as to where the ten physical sportsbooks can locate. Voters will ultimately decide the final location of each sportsbook.

The New Hampshire Lottery Commission will award the licenses and decide upon the initial areas where the physical sportsbooks can be located.

They will then inform the respective cities, providing them with sports betting information. The cities will then put the issue to a public vote in the November elections.

Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the Lottery Commission, was bullish in a statement discussing the application process. He said the New Hampshire Lottery Comlooks forward to

working with vendors to develop a secure sports betting system that engages our players.”

Legal sports betting in New Hampshire

If everything goes to plan, there will be legal sportsbooks open for business in New Hampshire in time for the 2020 Super Bowl. Officials in New Hampshire are estimating that tax revenues in the region of $7.5m will be generated from sports betting in the 2021 fiscal year.

Most of the funds will go towards funding education programs in the state. They expect the market to take a couple of years to mature, which will potentially see their annual tax revenues rise to $13.5m by 2024.

When the sportsbooks launch, it will make the state the second member of New England to have legal sports betting. The only other state with functional sportsbooks currently in New England is Rhode Island.

With a lot of Rhode Island residents being closer to New Hampshire state lines than their own state’s physical sportsbooks, this could see people crossing over state lines to place mobile bets. This is a trend seen in the likes of New Jersey. New Yorkers regularly cross state lines to place sports bets on their mobile devices.

Sports bets will be accepted by anyone aged 18 or over and residents can sign up for an online sports betting account remotely. You will only be allowed to place in-play bets through the online sportsbooks. You cannot place bets on events involving New Hampshire colleges or any college events taking place on state soil.