Feb 26, 2021 There was plenty of positive testimony on Maryland sports betting Thursday, but those looking to get involved want more opportunities. While many were pleased with the inclusivity of the bill, local businessowners were left wondering if there’s enough room for them. HB 940 sets aside retail. View the latest odds and bet online legally, securely, and easily with the top rated sportsbook. Place a bet now!

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There was plenty of positive testimony on Maryland sports betting Thursday, but those looking to get involved want more opportunities.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones introduced HB 940 to the Ways and Means Committee with three main objectives:

  • Creating a fair framework
  • Increasing education funding
  • Maximizing meaningful opportunities for everyone, including minority-owned businesses

While many were pleased with the inclusivity of the bill, local businessowners were left wondering if there’s enough room for them.

Voters approved MD sports betting through a referendum in November, so the focus now turns toward how the market will look.

More online licenses in Maryland sports betting bill?

Maryland

HB 940 sets aside retail licenses for gaming and non-gaming entities, but the mobile licenses are a bit different.

There are a total of 13retail licenses available. Eight Class A licenses are reserved for the state’s six casinos and two racetrack operators. The other five Class B licenses are reserved for a competitive bidding process.

There are just 10 mobile licenses, though, and they’re all up for competitive bid. That rubbed some local minority-owned business entities the wrong way.

Tony Jones, chief strategy officer at Delmock Technologies which operates off-track betting facility Riverboat on the Potomac, said more mobile licenses are needed to ensure the kind of inclusion the state wants to achieve:

“We believe the number of mobile licenses has to really climb up. Our major concern is with six casinos and two or three horse tracks, if there’s only 10 mobile licenses one would have to believe that those casinos will get a mobile license, one would have to believe two or three racetracks would get a mobile license.

“Then you’d have the minority firms fighting amongst one another for a very small piece of the pie, and that’s not what I think the state wants to have happen.”

Others echo call for more licenses

The Maryland State Fair isn’t guaranteed a license and wants a better shot at one.

“We really have a great location, a great facility here,” said Andy Cashman, GM of the Maryland State Fair. “It’s 140 years old and we’ve kept up with a lot of great things but there’s a lot of capital improvements and things we could certainly use the sports betting money to help us to survive and to improve our facility and grounds.”

Jack Lavoie of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs minor league baseball team also lamented the number of available licenses.

The team would be interested in both a retail and mobile sports betting license. The revenue would help keep minor league baseball viable in the state and help with stadium repairs, he said.

“In reading the original bill, we were disappointed that it seemed that between the six casinos and three racetracks it would be very difficult for small operators such as ours or Mr. Jones, or the fairground or others to have inclusion in this,” Lavoie said.

Financial details of HB 940

What an operator pays for their license will depend on what kind of license they get:

  • Casinos and tracks will pay a $250,000 application fee for their Class A license with an annual $50,000 license fee.
  • It will cost $50,000 to apply for one of the five Class B competitively bid retail licenses. Those operators will pay $10,000 annually for their license.
  • Hopeful mobile operators will pay $500,000 to apply and $100,000 annually for the license.

All licensees will have to pay a license renewal fee every five years that’s equal to 1% of the operator’s average annual gross sports betting revenue over the past five years.

Both retail and online sports betting revenue will be taxed at 15% with an escalator for mobile operators. Once a mobile sportsbook’s annual revenue hits $5 million, any additional revenue will be taxed at 17.5%.

The Maryland Terrapins (14-10, 8-9 Big Ten) host the Michigan State Spartans (13-9, 7-9) Sunday for a conference showdown at Xfinity Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET. Below, we analyze the Michigan State-Maryland odds and lines, with NCAA college basketball picks and predictions.

Michigan State at Maryland: Odds, spread and lines

Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 9 a.m. ET.

Money line: Michigan State +120 (bet $100 to win $120) Maryland -145 (bet $145 to win $100)Against the spread/ATS: Michigan State +2.5 (-105) Maryland -2.5 (-115)Over/Under: 133.5 (O: -110 U: -110)

Maryland Sportsbooks

Michigan State at Maryland: Three things to know

Michigan State has gotten on track in hopes of making an NCAA tournament push by winning three straight Big Ten games, each as an underdog. The stretch includes a road win at Indiana, then two wins over No. 4 Illinois and No. 5 Ohio State.Maryland is on a four-game winning streak, each against a Big Ten opponent, but two of those wins were against a Nebraska team that has just one conference win this season.The Spartans have won four of their last five meetings with the Terrapins, including a 78-66 win last season. They are 3-1-1 ATS in those games.

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Michigan State at Maryland: Odds, lines, predictions and picks

Money line (ML)

While the Spartans are playing their best basketball of the season heading into this one—beating two top-5 teams earlier this week—Michigan State is still 36 spots behind Maryland in NET rankings and has a lower winning percentage against Quad 1 teams.

Also, the Terrapins are well-rested entering today since their previous game was last Sunday and the Spartans have played twice this week. Maryland is 7-1 straight up in games where it has a rest advantage.

Finally, it’s been profitable this season fading Michigan State in road games and backing Maryland in home games. The Spartans are 3-6 away from home and the Terrapins are 9-1 as a home favorite this season.

Maryland Online Sportsbook

TAKE MARYLAND (-145) for 1 unit.

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Against the spread (ATS)

PASS on the spread unless Maryland’s money line gets any more expensive, which it very well could.

Michigan State is a more popular basketball program and its huge wins earlier this week could certainly motivate the average bettor into betting the Spartans to beat an unranked Maryland team. Maybe wait until a little closer to tip-off and we could get a better price on the Terrapins.

Over/Under (O/U)

The UNDER 133.5 (-110) is my favorite play on the board for a couple of reasons.

First, the side we are on —Maryland—plays at one of the slower tempos in the nation (302nd in pace of play) so I’m banking on the game being a little slowed down.

Second, we have some Under-friendly trends such as Maryland having a 1-4 O/U record in its last five games following a win, Michigan State playing to the Under in six of its past seven games and three of the last four Michigan State-Maryland meetings have gone Under the total.

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