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What’s next in the fight for legal Florida sports betting? We wish we had an answer for you, as things are clear as mud. The hope was that potentially something would get done soon in the appeals court, but the opposite appears to be the case. With that, things aren’t much better in California and experts believe this could prove to be an issue for the Sunshine State as well. Currently, there’s no question that the California sports betting problems aren’t helping Florida at all.
In a recent report, the official numbers from the November ballot were released with a full breakdown. Per that report, less than 18 percent of Californians voted in favor of mobile sports betting. Around 33 percent of the voters were in favor of one of the sports betting propositions. The fact that nearly 70 percent of the voters were against it is a huge concern. Originally, officials thought that sports fans were on the same page here.
However, that wasn’t the case with the latest election results. Why such division? As we’ve said a few times before, the latest betting attempt never really had a chance to take off because of the local tribes and major sportsbooks fighting against one another. Some pretty head-turning advertisements were being displayed both on television and through internet options.
It became a PR nightmare for everyone involved, which was a huge bummer. This led to plenty of voters being turned off by the whole process. You’d think that this would have been a home-run project for people to get on board for. However, everything proved to be a big failure from the start. Lawmakers believe that the betting fight for Florida and California goes hand-in-hand. With California betting looking like a long shot for 2024, the same could be the case for Florida.
Mobile sports betting supported by less than 18% of voters in California @FlutterPLC @DraftKings spent > $600M losing referendum last November🤡 pic.twitter.com/V0McwyKDWe
— Mr Phil Bull💙 (@MrTimeform) May 2, 2023
Mobile sports betting would have major potential in Florida
With people in California being so against online options, we believe that mobile sports betting would have major potential in Florida. Similar to California, Florida features several big-market cities, with a huge sports following. Take Miami for example, the city alone has the Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat, Miami Hurricanes, Miami Marlins and more. All of those teams pack their respective stadiums each night.
With the Miami Heat, citizens would love nothing more than to check the NBA betting odds right now, as the Heat are poised to go on a deep run. Miami stunned the hoops world as a whole last month when they eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, in the first round. Now, Miami has its eyes on the New York Knicks, and Jimmy Butler and Co. surely have another upset in mind. All eyes are on Butler’s ankle injury right now.
“We’ve been in this type of situation the last couple of months, with guys being injured and out, and that’s why you build a team,” star guard Kyle Lowry said. “You don’t build a one-player roster, you build a 17-man roster, 15-man roster, for guys to be able to step up. You’ve got an irreplaceable guy, an irreplaceable guy like Jimmy. If he goes, he goes. If he’s not, we’ve got to find a way to go out there and do our jobs still. We’ve still got to go hoop.”
What’s so frustrating for people in Florida is that mobile betting was actually launched for a brief period in the fall of 2021, but then things were quickly shut down by a U.S. District Judge. The last hope for The Seminole Tribe and Governor Ron DeSantis is for the appeals court to rule in their favor. If that happens, then sports betting will be back in action in Florida. If the court doesn’t side with them, then it’s back to square one for the state.
Champ. Leader. Vet.
Kyle knows what needs to be done on this stage. pic.twitter.com/bimj7Pbyhe
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) May 1, 2023
Could Florida sports betting arrive for the football season?
Right now, a lot of people are wondering could Florida sports betting arrive for the football season? That’s totally up in the air, but fans are remaining hopeful. Again, this comes down to how the appeals court decides to act. Should they inform DeSantis and The Seminole Tribe that they were in the right and didn’t break any laws, then we could see betting back in action by the summer.
This would be massive for the state. Football is the king in Florida and people wouldn’t waste a second in checking the NFL betting odds to put money down. In Florida alone, people are always going to have high interest in the Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both squads added key depth at multiple positions in the NFL Draft.
With the Dolphins, they’ve got plenty of Super Bowl betting buzz after they were able to bring in star cornerback Jalen Ramsey as well. If Tua Tagovailoa can stay healthy, this team will surely be in the Lombardi Trophy mix later this year. The hope is that people will be able to bet on this as well. Will it happen? We may find out soon.
