On Wednesday, the North Carolina Lottery Commission approved a $571,500 deal for Gaming Labs International (GLI) to help implement sports betting. It’s an amended contract that increases the original fee of $149,000 due to GLI.
The original GLI contract, secured on August 11, 2023, would have provided
- implementation services,
- regulatory expertise,
- assistance with technical requirements,
- professional development for staff,
- responsible gambling program development.
Other states have used these standard offerings to launch their sports betting and online gambling industries.
The amended GLI contract adds the following responsibilities to its job description:
- advanced deposit wagering licensure of parimutuel horse racing rules;
- the evaluation of control standards proposed by sports betting operator applicants;
- the option for additional development and training for other features.
These additional responsibilities add $422,000 to the GLI contract cost.
The funding would come from sports betting licensing fees, ADW licensing fees and lottery commission reimbursements from interactive sports wagering taxes. The Lottery may borrow money from the State Lottery Fund to cover the initial operating expenses of launching online sports betting in North Carolina.
GLI has helped other states launch sports betting
GLI is a critical organization in many state sports betting launches. Massachusetts, Vermont, and Kentucky are only some markets that have used GLI to move sports betting regulations along. Sportsbook applicants undergo testing to ensure their products can handle payouts and play at scale. GLI is often the organization that provides that sports betting products are ready for launch.
Sterl Carpenter, deputy executive director of gaming compliance and sports betting, is a former member of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. It’s among the most respected gaming commissions in the United States. Consequently, seeing him behind the effort to expand GLI’s contract to include additional safeguards and expertise is unsurprising.
GLI’s amended contract is also good news for North Carolina’s sports betting timeline. While rulemaking has been slow, the GLI expertise is expected to accelerate North Carolina’s sports betting timeline.
When the state eventually gets online sports betting off the ground, NCSharp projects North Carolina could generate between $6-$7 billion in total bets in its first year of operation.
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