Oklahoma Online Sports Betting

Oklahoma has a healthy gambling industry complete with Tribal casinos, horse racing tracks and a limited number of legal online sites – Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and horse racing betting. The state does not yet allow for online poker or casino games, or mobile sports wagering in the style of NJ sports betting sites.

Oklahoma’s many Tribal Casinos offer slot machines, video poker, table games and slot machines but as yet, no sports betting options are available. Any future expansion of betting types must almost always involve the tribal casinos in the consultation and execution process.

One tribe attempted to bring online casino games to Oklahoma but their effort eventually came to nought in 2014 due to tribal politics and federal intervention. With time ripe for change, Oklahoma’s tribes are readying themselves for legal sports better sometime later in 2020 after renegotiating their tribal compacts with Federal officials.

Sports Betting Laws in Oklahoma are tied to developments at the Federal level of government. The odds for introducing Oklahoma Sports Betting changed dramatically in May 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court of 2018 found against the generation-long Federal nationwide ban of sports betting. or not.

In that framework, Oklahoma Sports Wagering Sports was legalized to a limited degree in the state through new gaming compacts negotiated between tribal gaming operators and the state in 2020. The Comanche Nation compact and the Otoe-Missouria compact and Comanche Nation compact permit each tribe to operate two retail sportsbooks and online sportsbooks geo-protected for use on whilst on the casino property only. The two tribes between them operate 9 casinos across the state.

In both compacts, the state government can authorize up to five commercial sportsbooks should Oklahoma pass additional legislation authorizing commercial sports betting.

In June 2020, the two compacts were approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior and once the compacts are published in the Federal Register (expected later in 2020), legal sports betting can begin in Oklahoma.

In the meantime, Oklahoma’s residents and visitors can enjoy the sports betting options of DFS and horse and greyhound racing.

Despite several efforts to brings online gambling to Oklahoma by the Tribal Casinos (who back in 2013 even invested millions of dollars in developing online betting sites). The Tribal Casino’s move to introduce online casinos did not bear fruit, and consequently, online sports betting is currently not covered under Oklahoman state law.

As is the norm in many States of the Union, the broad wording of the Oklahoman State Statutes, Section §21-942 is considered broad sweeping enough to cover online gambling (both online sports betting and online casino play) as illegal.

However, Oklahoma State Law does not apply to Tribal lands. Once the Tribes retail sportsbooks open for operation, online sports wagering will be legal whilst in the grounds of those bricks-and-mortar sportsbooks only.

In the meantime, as mentioned above, DFS and online betting on horse and greyhound racing are both legal ways for the online sports bettor to wager in Oklahoma until the time that full sports betting is legalized in the state.

U.S. Federal Law legalizes Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) competitions as they are considered to be a contest of player skill, rather than a gambling game of chance. Many state governments have taken the Federal ruling onboard and have ruled DFS to be legalized too at the state level.

Oklahoma, so far however, is an exception to the rule. In 2016, the Tribal Casinos came out against DFS in Oklahoma claiming DFS competitions eat into their bottom line, and the DFS contests break the revenue-sharing agreement between the Tribal Casinos and the state.

For the meantime, however, all major DFS companies are able to accept players from Oklahoma in their real money DFS competitions under the current status quo.

Given the approaching legality of sports betting for citizens of Oklahoma, legalized eSports betting should transform betting in the Sooner State. Players will win exciting eSports wagers in profoundly new ways through betting markets never before experienced and thereby create a potentially record-setting new tax revenue streams for the State Government of Oklahoma.

eSports Explained

Since the very first days of video games, there’s always been a competitive side to the games and players have always tried to better their colleagues.

Fast forward to the present day and professional video game play at the top level, (i.e. eSports) has led to massive wagering on the outcomes of the global tournaments.

eSports is now a massive and growing industry, where professionals play an official network of gaming tournaments, competing in games like Rocket League, Starcraft II, FIFA 18/19 and Fortnite). With its ancestry in groups of close friends hosting all-niter LAN parties just a few short years ago, the eSports industry shows no signs of slowing down. The global eSports market is expected to cross the $1 billion per annum barrier in 2018/19 and with every tournament, entrance tickets become more difficult to come by.

Naturally, there is big money on offer, and where there is big money, sportsbooks are not far behind. Global sportsbooks now offer betting markets across all the big eSports tournaments.

Expect to see eSports betting in Oklahoma at your favorite legalized Sooner State sportsbook soon.

Passed in 1983, the Oklahoma Horse Racing Act allowed for legal betting on horse racing. In 2004, a referendum was passed to allow racetracks to add casino-style gaming to effectively become ‘racinos’.
The Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission oversees the industry and is responsible for licensing of the state racetracks, approving racing events, animal welfare, simulcasting and track management.

Trackside Betting

There are 3 Horse Racing tracks offering betting on live racing (usually on weekends) and simulcast betting during the week.

Off Track Betting (OTB) in Oklahoma

The state of Oklahoma currently offers a vast network of OTB locations, and occasionally OTB’s are open for service (under state license) at county fairs.

Online Horse Racing in Oklahoma

Most online horse racing betting sites operating in the United States accept customers from the Sooner State of Oklahoma and offer real money betting action on all the big U.S. races (the Preakness Stakes and the rest of the Triple Crown, Arkansas Derby, Kentucky Derby etc.) and most popular international horse racing venues.

Visit our page about Oklahoma’s Online Casino Gambling Laws for more information about which Online Casinos are licensed to Operate in the State