Nevada Moves Closer to Regulating Esports Betting

Last week, the Esports Technical Advisory Committee, an eight-member panel created last year to facilitate wagering on esports in the state of Nevada, got one step closer to recommending the first regulations in Nevada for betting on esports competitions.

Esports Wagering Getting More and More Popular

Events at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena and Luxor’s HyperX Arena are just some of the esports competitions that millions of people watch in person or online. In fact, even Madison Square Garden Entertainment will offer esports matches at the MSG Sphere at The Venetian when it gets its doors open in 2023.

According to some experts, esports could be “the next big competitive thing for a city” due to the boom in popularity of visitation of sports events. Wagering on esports is seen as a logical step in the evolution of the competitions.

Brendan Bussmann, a gaming industry analyst with Las Vegas-based B Global, indicated wagering on esports “is already happening” outside the existing regulations in Nevada and other jurisdictions. Bussmann also added that part of the evolution of sports betting is to gather all players in the same place and make sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of regulating the gambling market.

ETAC Preparing Gambling Regulations

The Esports Technical Advisory Committee has been working on esports gambling-related regulations all year and on September 21, it got its first look at a proposed regulation. It decided to return the proposal to the Nevada Attorney General’s office for revision. The committee has been collaborating with the attorney general’s office to create the said regulatory framework, which would legalize esports wagering by 2023. Per the presented proposal, the sportsbooks would be allowed to accept bets on esports competitions without special approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB).

The ETAC will meet again on October 24 to have a final look at the gaming regulations, which later will be presented to the NGCB and the Nevada Gaming Commission, for review. The new esports regulatory framework will become part of NGCB’s Regulation 22, which regulates racebooks and sports pools. The committee will also discuss if rules for sports betting could be amended or complemented with esports betting.

The new regulatory framework would include additional requirements such as due diligence processes on sportsbooks. Nevada regulatory authorities have to be notified quarterly about all esports leagues and events it has accepted bets on. If an issue occurs, the chairman of NGCB would be allowed to bar sportsbooks from accepting wagers on certain esports events. On the other hand, sportsbooks would be allowed to request a review if they believe that a league or event should be permitted for betting.

ETAC Met with Esports Betting Companies

On July 18, ETAC met with several esports wagering companies, including Oddin.gg, GRID.gg, and Bayes Esports, to discuss the development of the regulations and the implementation of esports betting in Nevada.