Puerto Rico to Launch Sports Betting Market in April?

Gaming Commission of Puerto Rico’s new executive director, Orlando Rivera Carrion, has said that he hopes that sports betting market in the country will be launched by April.

He did say that there remain a few more steps to be taken before the market is fully ready to launch.

With the MLB Season Launch

Carrion said that the objective is to launch the market before the new MLB season starts, according to the El Nuevo Did report.

Training in the league is expected to resume on February 17th, while season’s opening day would take place on April 1st.

Former Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced has signed Senate Bill 1534 into law during her last days in charge…

…which paved the way for sports betting in eSports activation in Puerto Rico. The country looks for “new industries and businesses to create jobs and new sources of revenue to sustain government programs and essential services.”

Opposition’s Concerns

Before the market goes live, however, a budget must be established to finalize the regulation which needs inclusion of the 2020 amendments.

Carrion said that the sports betting division currently has no budget and that the organization needs to provide one in order to finish the regulation.

In spite the fact that there is an opposition from various sectors, Carrion assured everyone that every professional sports league will be able to decide if their tournaments can be used for sports betting.

If leagues approve being part of sports betting market, they would come to their own agreements with bookmakers and would get money for them although it is still not clear of it would be a percentage of the bets made.

Carrion also mentioned the sports betting naysayers who are opposing it due to risk of breached integrity. He assured that for the local athlete it’s hard to give in to those risk and also noted that the entire industry will be just an additional income for the country.

Source:

“Puerto Rico sets sights on launching sports betting market by April”, sbcamericas.com, January 18th, 2021.