Arizona fantasy sports betting goes live on Saturday

PHOENIX  — Effective at midnight on Saturday, fantasy sports contests went live in the state of Arizona as part of legislation Gov. Doug Ducey signed earlier this year to legalize sports gambling.

The legislation Ducey signed also expands the type of gambling allowed at tribal casinos and lets tribes and pro sports teams take wagers on sporting events.

On Friday, the Arizona Department of Gaming completed its evaluation period to allocate 10 tribal event wagering operator licenses, they said in a release.

Ten tribes and eight sports organizations were granted licenses to accept sports bets online. The operators are able to begin marketing and sign patrons up online starting on Saturday. However, event wagering will not “go live” in the state until Sept. 9, per the release.

With fantasy sports contests now live, there’s currently six licensed fantasy sports operators. They are: Draftkings, FanDuel, FFPC, Yahoo, Fantasy Sports Shark and Underdog Sports.

“I can’t thank the public and stakeholders enough for their feedback and collaboration throughout the event wagering and fantasy sports implementation process,” said Arizona Department of Gaming director Ted Vogt. “This partnership, as well as the hard work of Department staff, has allowed Arizona to be one the fastest states to operationally state these new games since the passing of the enabling legislation.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article. 

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