Despite a lot of noise to the contrary, the legal sports betting industry is humming along. New Jersey and Delaware launched operations first, and they were joined by West Virginia (sports betting launched before the repeal of PASPA), and Mississippi, which opened sports wagering in 2017 but allowed it only on tribal casino premises. New York City and Maryland are the only other states that have yet to open a retail or online sportsbook.

When betting on a team or individual, you must know that the FA rules prohibit any individual associated with clubs at lower levels of the men’s and women’s league systems, plus match officials at FA Level 4 or below, from seeking, offering, accepting, or providing inside information that could reasonably be expected to be used for the purpose of match-fixing. It’s a criminal offense and is punishable by a prison sentence.

Another issue is the sports leagues’ push to have sportsbooks pay for their official data, which they claim will preserve integrity and increase revenue by reducing fraud. For example, MLB wants sportsbooks to use its Statcast data, which provides advanced statistics such as home run distance on TV broadcasts and online. Some of the big sportsbooks have already started using this data, but many have not.

Colorado legalized sports betting in 2021, and it launched with both retail and online sportsbooks in September. A handful of sportsbooks went live on the first day, including DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and PointsBet.