Legal sports betting is set to kick off in New Hampshire right before the new year, a month after a contract with DraftKings was approved.
Gov. Chris Sununu will place a ceremonial first wager at the Shoppers Pub + Eatery at Indian Head in Manchester on Monday, Dec. 30.
Mobile sports betting will also launch that day, which is sooner than expected, The New Hampshire Union-Leader reported, in time for the NFL playoffs.
Physical locations for sports betting have expected to be up and running by late winter or early spring. DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish told the Union-Leader the first will launch "in the first half of next year."
New Hampshire is becoming the second in New England to allow wagering on games after the New Hampshire Lottery Commission approved a sports-betting contract with DraftKings in late November.
DraftKings, a Boston company that announced Monday it plans to go public, will pay the New Hampshire lottery 51% of gross gaming revenue for mobile and 50% of gross gaming revenue from retail locations under the six-year contract approved in November.
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The contract allows DraftKings to operate sports books in the state with the possibility of two, two-year extensions. Along with its mobile app, DraftKings will oversee physical sports book operations in New Hampshire. The council also amended the contract for a second company, Intralot, which provides the technology for the lottery. It will provide some sports bets on machines already selling lottery tickets and pay the lottery 19.25% of gross gaming revenue.
Berlin, Claremont, Laconia, Manchester and Somersworth have allowed physical sports book retail locations to operate there.
Rhode Island is currently the only New England state that has launched sports betting. The one-year anniversary of the launch is Tuesday. Revenue has fallen well short of projections in most states with legalized sports betting.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 paved the way for states to allow sports betting. It is underway in 13 states.
