Eilers & Krejcik win contract for West Virginia sports betting economic impact study
State aims to get ahead of neighbors should the Supreme Court invalidate PASPA
Eilers & Krejcik has won a $160,000 contract to produce a report on the potential economic impact of legalizing sports betting in West Virginia.
The news was announced by the state’s Lottery Commission director Alan Larrick, who said the state wanted to be prepared for any future changes in regulation.
“It’s really an informational-type situation for us to be as informed as possible,” Larrick told the West Virginia Gazette Mail.
“Depending on what happens, if we’re given the power to go forward with sports gaming, we want to be ready to go forward with as much knowledge and information as we can possibly get.”
Larrick said the report would help the state get a jump on launching sports betting first, should the Supreme Court overturn PASPA in any way in the coming months.
“Historically, that was a great thing for West Virginia financially when we got ahead of our neighbors,” Larrick said, referring to the state offering video slots and table games before neighbouring states.
“If we are given that opportunity, we would like to be able to step forward as quickly as we can, for obvious reasons revenue-wise,” Larrick said.
The West Virginia state legislature saw the introduction of a bill to legalize sports betting at the state’s five casinos earlier this year, but it was never taken up for a vote.
Earlier this month Eilers & Krejcik released its projections for the national regulated US betting market, calling for a base case by 2023 of 32 states to offer regulated sports betting, with varying approaches to availability and the land-based/mobile question, resulting in a market worth $6bn in annual revenue.