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Miriam Adelson and Patrick DuMont aren’t the only casino conglomerates that own a basketball team in the state of Texas — a state market that sports betting apps and companies (like the owner’s own Las Vegas Sands) are salivating to get access to. No, they weren’t even the first.
It flies under the radar, but the Houston Rockets’ owner, Tilman Feritta, beat them to the punch. He’s controlled the franchise since 2017, and Fertitta — who’s related to the other Fertitta’s that formerly owned the UFC and still run their own casino corporation — just expanded his basketball empire in the Lone Star State.
Feritta just bought the Connecticut Sun WNBA franchise and plans to bring them to Houston. Could that be extra pressure on state politicians to legalize betting in Texas? Or maybe an out to monetize in the state without betting? Keep reading and we’ll discuss the sneaky possibilities here!
Fertitta Buys WNBA Team
$300 million — that’s how much Feritta is forking over for the WNBA team. That’s the most-ever paid for a WNBA team. Did Feritta overpay or is the league just ascending? We’d argue the latter is more likely. The price Feritta paid might seem cheap if WNBA continues growing at this torrid pace behind superstar names like Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and Caitlin Clark.
The acquired team, the Sun, were founded in 1999 and originally played in Orlando. They relocated to Connecticut in 2003 and will stay there through the season. In 2027, Feritta will bring them to Houston where they’ll now be called the Comets.
Ball-knowers will remember that’s an original WNBA franchise from 1997. The Comets won the league’s first four championship titles so success was common before they disbanded in 2008 during the Great Recession. Welp, they’re back to a Houston market that’s one of the five biggest in the whole country.
WNBA Team Already Had Gambling Ties
Ironically, Feritta got the team from another gaming entity in the Mohegan Tribe. When the tribe scooped up the franchise, it was a trailblazing move. For one, it was the first time a Native American tribe owned a sports team.
But second, and perhaps more consequential, the Mohegans were the first independent owners in the women’s league. Before that, the NBA owned and operated every single team. That’s no longer the case as every team has third-party owners. Ownership is typically split between those owners and the NBA.
“Mohegan owes an enormous amount of gratitude first and foremost to our extraordinary fans cheering on the team for 23 incredible seasons,” Joe Soper, corresponding secretary for the Mohegan Tribal Council.
The sale gives the tribe a needed cash injection to expand its gambling footprint. In Connecticut, they are one of two tribes with full-fledged casinos (the other is the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation). But… they want more.
The Mohegans put a bid for a New York City casino license. It was an ambitious plan to create Freedom Plaza, a $11 billion gambling complex in Manhattan. The bid was ultimately rejected by the community and died out. It was another defeat after a failed casino project in Seoul’s airport in South Korea.
Enough about the Mohegans though, what we really care about is how it’ll affect the chances of Texas betting becoming a reality. We cover that in our next section.
Texas Betting Industry Still Feels Like A Longshot
There is no legislative session this year in Texas. They meet every two years, putting 2027 as the next time that new legislation can be passed. As always, the betting question lingers: Will Texas ever cave in and legalize?
Right now, it doesn’t seem likely. Texan Republicans have staunchly opposed it — starting with the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick. He effectively controls the Senate and has repeatedly said betting, whether through casinos or sports, is not on its agenda. Matter of fact, the Republican agenda in the state has language saying it’s opposed to gambling expansion.
The new owners of the Mavericks have tried to change that. Reports say they’ve donated well over $10 million to local politicians. Of course, that’s done to curry favor — not just on betting, but on a host of political issues. As soon as the owners bought the Mavs from Mark Cuban, the idea was always to build a hybrid casino-basketball arena for the team.
A few years later, that idea feels like a pipe dream. A betting bill was kicked around in 2025, but didn’t garner much attention. Worse, the politicians openly chastise the idea of bringing betting to the Lone Star State.
Adelson is learning that the hard way. Fertitta though? He might have ambitions outside of Texas to expand his gambling empire. On top of owning Golden Nugget, where most of Fertitta’s wealth came from, he’s also a major shareholder of both Wynn Resorts and Caesars.
Rumors have been swirling that Fertitta wants to take over Caesars. Reports say he’s offered $7 billion for the gambling leader. If successful, that would give Fertitta a big-name Las Vegas Strip property (Caesar’s Palace, namely, but also the likes of Planet Hollywood and Paris Las Vegas). This would go well with Nugget properties, which are more regional than anything.
Maybe, just maybe, Fertitta sees the writing on the wall on Texas and is focused on expansion elsewhere — those Strip properties and the WNBA team. It certainly sounds plausible, given the dead end that Texas betting has become.
Online betting sites 