Tennessee Online Sports Betting

Tennessee is unique among U.S. states having the distinction of offering more legal online betting options than it does land-based gambling. Its lawmakers have taken the radical and unique move of introducing online sports betting in a state that has no land-based casino heritage.

Wagering on sports online with legal online sports books in Tennessee officially begun on 1 November 2020 with 4 online sports books launching simultaneously, with many more to come soon.

That said, the state of Tennessee is traditionally quite anti-gambling with no land-based racetracks, casinos, poker rooms or land-based sports betting options at all.

Take into account that Tennessee didn’t even have a state lottery until as late as 2003, and you should begin to gain some kind of perspective as to exactly how reluctant Tennessee has been over time to accept legal gambling of any form.

Of course, there have been exceptions in the past. Tennessee actually has online betting options for Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and most U.S.-based horse racing betting sites accept customers from the state of Tennessee without any legal barriers of any kind.

No Casinos, No poker, however, legal online sports betting launched in the Volunteer State on 01 November 2020. Tennessee is a traditional anti-gaming state but does also offer gamblers legal DFS competitions, a popular state lottery, horse racing (online and off-track) and charitable gambling.

For all its limited gambling types, Tennessee keeps it simple and applies an across the board age limit of 18.

4 online sportsbooks officially launched simultaneously at 1201am on 01 November 2020, with more sportsbooks expected to open to the residents and visitors to the Volunteer State over the coming months;

• BetMGM
• FanDuel
• DraftKings
• Tennessee Action 24/7 (suspended March 19 2021; temporarily reinstated days later pending further legal action; watch this space)
• Twinspires 
• William Hill
• Wynn Bet Online Sportsbook – Coming soon
• Barstool Sportsbook (before end of 2021)
• Unibet Sportsbook

It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that Tennessee Lawmakers finding for legal online sports betting would have been a huge shock and residents would have needed to travel to use NJ online sports betting sites. However, that all changed with the Tennessee Legislature adopting bi-partisan support of online sports betting legalization bill HB 0001 in 2019 and State Governor Lee allowed the bill to pass into State Law without his signature. The bill is unique in that it allows for online sports betting only, no land-based sports betting was included in the legislation.

The Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation (TELC) adopted the following set of sports betting regulations;

• TELC require an annual payment of $750 000 for a sports betting license
• The state government will impose a 20% gross gaming revenue tax, and a 10% minimum hold requirement (bettor ‘pay back’ of no more than 90% of all bets taken).
• Tennessee’s sportsbooks operators will be expected to purchase official data from the major sports leagues in order to accept live in-game wagers.
• Only Tennessee state residents 21-years-of-age-or-older will be permitted to place wagers.
• Bets to be permitted on pro sports, college sports, amateur sports (like the Olympic Games or World Athletic Championships etc.) and eSports.
• Betting only available within Tennessee state lines and protected by geolocation technology.

The following groups of persons will not be permitted to participate in Tennessee Sports Betting once introduced;

• A TELC employee or member.
• Any owners, partners, members of the board of directors, officers, or supervisory employees of a licensee, or a professional sports team.
• Any player or coach of a collegiate or professional sports team, or a member or employee of any governing body of a sports team, league or association.
• Any person who has the ability to affect the outcome of a sporting event directly (including referees or umpires)
• Any other category of persons (as determined by TELC) that if allowed to place a wager, could possibly affect the integrity of sports wagering in Tennessee.

Federal lawmakers have decreed that Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) are contests of skill and not considered to be gambling. Subsequently, DFS is therefore immune from all forms of Federal gambling regulation or intervention.

State governments across the United States have been exercising their state rights, and consequently, they have been legalizing DFS and regulating the practice under their respective state laws.

Tennessee’s gaming laws do not restrict real money DFS competitions and DFS sites are free to offer their real money competitions to residents and visitors to the Volunteer State.

In April 2016, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed the Fantasy Sports Act into State law. The act specifically legalized DFS and the operators are required to obtain a license from the Secretary of State.

Once licensed, fantasy site operators must adhere to a number of regulations;

• $2500 per month Deposit Limit for Players.
• Players’ funds must be kept in a separate bank account and must not be combined with the fantasy site’s operational funds.
• Players must be at least 18 years old and not hold multiple DFS accounts.
• Fantasy sites must maintain records of all player accounts for five years.
• Preventing employees from participating in paid contests and more.
• Combating problem gambling.

Under these regulations, DFS games for real money are offered in Tennessee without any hinderance from state authorities and the industry is in full-swing.

As previously mentioned, Tennessee Sports Betting Laws are unique, and with that in mind, the State’s Lawmakers also legalized eSports in their legislation with eSports included in the definition of a legal ‘sporting event’;

“Any professional sporting or athletic event, including motorsports and e-sports, any collegiate sporting or athletic event, or any Olympic sporting or athletic event sanctioned by a national or international organization or association…”

What are eSports?

Since multi-player video gaming started in the early 2000s, the game’s players have constantly been conspiring to outscore their opponents.
Now, eSports (professional video game play at-the-highest-level) have cultivated big global betting markets based on the outcomes of the all the worldwide tournaments.
The players battle for glory in games like Dota 2, Rocket League and CS;GO worldwide in a series of networked tournaments. Growing rapidly, the eSports industry crossed the $1 billion threshold early 2019 and keeps growing quickly year-on-year.
When sports betting finally graces your favorite legal Tennessee sports book, look for legal eSports wagering to play a prominent role in your available betting types.

Under Tennessee racing laws, licensed horse racing and simulcast betting at licensed OTB facilities are all permissible. The state however, does not have any operating racetracks.
The state’s racing industry will soon be overseen and administered by the recently legalized (under bills SB 1908, and SB 346 / HB 814) Tennessee State Horse Racing Commission.

Trackside Betting

There are currently no legal or licensed horse racing tracks currently operating in Tennessee.

Off Track Betting (OTB) in Tennessee

Tennessee has several ‘satellite tele-theaters’ that operate as OTB locations for simulcast betting.

Online Horse Racing in Tennessee

Thankfully, given the limited number of options for online bettors in the state of Tennessee, it is possible to place horse racing wagers online without any fear of punishment under the state’s quite strict gambling laws.
Excellent online odds are available for Tennessee’s online horse racing fans on all the major horse racing venues worldwide and thoroughbred racing venues across the United States directly from their phones, tablets, smartwatches, other mobile devices or home computers.

Visit our Gambling in Tennessee page for more information on online gambling in the Volunteer State