Vermont Set For January 2024 Sports Betting Launch

Legal online sports betting in Vermont is set to go live as early as January 2024. While the Green Mountain State only signed the betting legislation into law on June 14, the Department of Liquor and Lottery now has less than six months to turn the law into reality.

This means that sports fans in Vermont can now look forward to the prospect of being able to use legal sports betting apps for the 2023/24 NFL playoffs. However, there is still much to be decided in terms of which six online sportsbooks will be allowed to operate within the state.

The race to launch sports betting in Vermont

The race is on to get things fully set up by January 2024, as this time of year is historically one of the most active months of the year in terms of betting on sport. Although time might not be on the regulator’s side, it has the benefit of being able to see how other states have handled the introduction of legal sports betting so as to avoid any problems.

This is all the more true because Vermont will be taking the curious route of entering a revenue-sharing agreement with its sportsbooks, rather than licensing them outright. Such an arrangement is already underway in New Hampshire, and there’s no reason why it can’t also work in the Green Mountain State.

There’s also the curious quirk of Vermont being just one of a small number of states that have legalised online sports betting while having no physical casinos within its borders.

This is similar to Tennessee and Virginia, and it means that there might be more effort needed to set up the required regulatory framework. After all, it took nearly one and a half years for Tennessee to launch legal sports betting, while Vermont is trying to do the same in a fraction of the time.

Vermont became the 38th state to offer regulated sports betting and this will give the state a good framework to decide how to go forward from the regulator’s next meeting early this July. This will outline the way in which sportsbooks are allowed to send in their bids and these bids will be expected to be negotiated and finalized by December.

What to expect from sports betting in Vermont

There is the provision for there to be anywhere between two and six online sportsbooks operating in Vermont as of early 2024. The Department of Liquor and Lottery will be tasked to ensuring that these sportsbooks operate fairly and responsibly.

Any online sportsbook wishing to legally operate within the Green Mountain State will have to pay an up-front fee of $500,000 to the regulatory authorities. While this fee will be reduced for the following three years, it will be supplemented by a 20% revenue tax rate.

Sports fans will have to be at least 21 years old to use any online sportsbook in Vermont, and while college sports betting will be legal, there won’t be any physical sportsbook outlets in the Green Mountain State.