Arizona Sports Betting

Unlike many other states, Arizona will offer a wide range of sportsbook apps from the get-go. The Arizona Department of Gaming has done a great job in approving sportsbooks license applications which will cater to a highly competitive legal sports betting scene in Arizona with many great customers offers up for grabs. 

There are around ten online sportsbooks operating in Arizona. In 2022 we expect another 5-10 sportsbook apps that are likely to go live. 

AZ sports betting apps range from big brands such as Caesars, FanDuel, BetMGM to more local Arizona sportsbooks such as BlueBet, and so forth.

Below is the current complete list of Arizona sports betting apps - their partners, software providers, venues and expected launch dates:

We would never advise anyone to bet with your heart. We recommend betting with your head and not getting too emotional about your sports betting. But fact remains that betting on your local Arizona sports teams is more fun and sometimes also better as you are more likely to know more about your favorite teams and therefore also make more educated decisions when betting on sports teams in Arizona.

Let's take a look at what professional sports teams there are to bet on in Arizona: 

Professional sports teams in Arizona are allowed to get involved in sportsbook partnership deals and the largest AZ pro teams, apart from Arizona Coyotes, are already taken. 

Caesars and The Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB)

This is a long-term partnership and is set at a minimum of 10 years. Caesars will open a branded retail sportsbook inside the Chase Field arena and provide top-class betting for Diamondback fans. The partnership also grants Caesars AZ sportsbook access to online sports betting in Arizona. 

Caesars is one of the fastest-growing sportsbooks in the US and through the merge, with William Hill, they increased their US online sports betting reach significantly. 

FanDuel and The Phoenix Suns (NBA)

The Talking Stick Resort Arena will be home to FanDuels Arizona retail sportsbook. The deal was one of the first between a pro-Arizona sports team and an online sportsbook and will give FanDuel a great platform to keep growing their brand. 

BetMGM and The Arizona Cardinals (NFL)

Not only have BetMGM secured one of the most lucrative sport teams deals in the Grand Canyon state, but they have also doubled down and secured a deal with the Gila River Tribe. BetMGM is one of the most ambitious sportsbooks in the US and has really proven that they are up for the challenge of taking on the fight for No 1 sportsbook in every state they access. We see no reason why BetMGM Arizona will be different. 

Bally Bet and The Phoenix Mercury (WNBA)

Bally Bet and Phoenix Mercury is the first deal of its kind. It's the first time a Women's pro team partners with a sportsbook. Great news US sports and even better, Bally Bet and The Mercury have set a 15-year deal. We hope to see more partnerships between sportsbooks and US women's sports teams. The deal is rumored to be worth a whopping $66 million.

SaharaBets and the Arizona Coyotes

Meruelo Gaming LLC, owned by Alex Meruelo's new sportsbooks Saharabets is the official sportsbook of the NHL team Arizona Coyotes. Meruelo is also the largest shareholder of the Arizona Coyotes which makes this partnership even closer. 

For decades, one of the most popular forms of gambling in Arizona was greyhound and horse racing. Betting on the runners was legal since the 1950s, and the Arizona Racing Commission was even formed in 1958 for the proper regulation of the activity.

Parimutuel betting was the order of the day, and off-track betting was later introduced as well. To further advance the racing industry, in 2014, Janice Brewer, the then Governor of Arizona, signed a bill that allowed ADW (Advanced Deposit Wagering) into law. Locals could now place wagers from the comfort of their homes without having to go to the stables.

Back to off-track betting, Arizona has one of the most significant numbers of OTB facilities in the USA. Players can place wagers on the ponies from various locations, including hotels, restaurants, sports bars, and even bowling alleys.

What is the Current State of Sports Betting in Arizona?

Thanks to Arizona Tribal-State Gaming Compacts with the local Native American tribes, tribal gaming holds a monopoly over gambling products. Even after the Professional and Amateur Act of 1992 was repealed by the Supreme Court on May 14, 2018, very little progress has been made to expand the sports betting industry in the state.

However, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for sports fans after a bill was introduced to legalize sports betting but only on tribal land in January of 2019. SB1158 if passed, would give every federally recognized Indian tribe with a tribal-state gaming compact authority to operate sports betting kiosks. This meant that tribal casinos would be the only entities allowed to open sportsbooks to the residents of Arizona.

Unfortunately, up until January 2020, the bill is yet to bear fruition because only one tribe out of the 22 federally recognized Arizona tribes supports the bill. Most of the tribes are adamant about supporting the bill because they feel that legalizing sports betting will water down the casino revenue that they are already enjoying. However, this changed in 2021 and legal and licensed online sports betting in Arizona is now a reality on top of the pre-existing land-based tribal casinos. 

Interactive Sports Betting in Arizona

Because the ability to place wagers online did not exist by the time of signing state-tribal compacts on tribal gaming, interactive gambling remained a grey area as it did in many other states as well. Thankfully, pari-mutuel online betting on horse and greyhound races was allowed on sites like BetAmerica, TVG, and Twinspires. However, there was a time around the 2010s when the online horse and greyhound racing platforms left Arizona, but they came back in January 2015.

Online sports betting is now allowed in the state of Arizona. After tough negotiations, the state has authorized the same provided sports betting online that it occurs on tribal land.

Arizona is host to several Tribal Casinos, 25 to be exact. So far, less than half of these have partnered up with online sports betting apps. From an outside perspective, the Tribal Casinos might lose revenues with such an intense Arizona online gambling presence. Their lucky wild card is that online casino is not yet legal and is not planned to become legalized anytime soon.

Below is a complete list of retail casinos in Arizona:

The legalization of daily fantasy sports is a trend adopted in a couple of states across America. The laws that prohibit daily fantasy sports betting in most cases define the sports contests to be under the description of games of chance. This, however, has been overturned in many states, and betting on daily fantasy sports contests has been legalized under the argument that they are a game of skill, not of chance but in Arizona, DFS is still considered prohibited. 

In the same fashion, State Bill 1515 was introduced by Senator Adam Driggs in February 2016 to legalize these contests in Arizona. But then, because of the tribal compacts in existence in Arizona; however, there was conflict will the Native Tribes based on how the bill was worded. Discussions were to be held by the assembly members to further debate on and revise the bill, but since then, there hasn’t been any mention of the bill to date. Offshore operators are also cautious, and most don’t offer daily fantasy sports betting to Arizonians as the penalty might be too steep.

With Arizona being a newcomer on the online sports betting scene, there’s still a lot of room for the sports betting industry to prosper in the state as there are already sports betting products legalized so far. Now that the state offers both retail and mobile sports betting, the opportunities are close to endless. 

If the state had decided to wait out the tribal compacts until 2022, sports betting in Arizona would have continued to lag. Still, with the recent approval, Arizona can soon be on par with states where sports betting has been legal for some time now. 

The tribes tried to fight back to maintain their monopoly over the gambling industry, but commercial sports betting won this battle and are now offering their services in The Grand Canyon State.

Moreover, the fact that offshore operators are limiting their sportsbook services to residents of Arizona might have influenced the state to change its laws on gambling. All in all, The Copper State has always had a thriving gambling industry, and it can only get better from here on out, especially after the PASPA repeal.