Plans to build a retail sportsbook at an NFL venue are in the works.
Sportsbook operator BetMGM announced a partnership Monday with the Arizona Cardinals and Gila River Hotels & Casinos that will give the company access to the state’s online sports betting market, which is scheduled to launch by the start of the 2021 NFL season.
The partnership includes building a retail sportsbook at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, home of the Cardinals.
The Cardinals are the first NFL team to announce plans to add a retail sportsbook, which is slated to open before the 2022 season, to their stadium, according to a release about the new partnership.
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Arizona, Illinois and the District of Columbia are among the places where professional sports venues are allowed to offer sports betting. Earlier this year, the Phoenix Suns, through their partnership with FanDuel, said they would be putting a retail sportsbook in their arena. Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., home of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics, opened a retail sportsbook in 2020.
Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs, also recently received approval to build a two-story sportsbook on the premises.
The Cardinals’ announcement continues the NFL’s pivot toward sports betting. The league opposed legal sports betting for decades and fought a nearly six-year court battle with the state of New Jersey in an attempt to prevent regulated betting from expanding outside of Nevada.
In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the NFL and struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, the federal statute that had restricted regulated sports betting to primarily Nevada. Since the ruling, 29 states and the District of Columbia have passed sports betting legislation.
