Montana Plans to Offer Fantasy Football Wagering

Now this is cool. Coming soon to the state of Montana - pari-mutuel wagering on fantasy football! A law passed last year authorized this as an attempt to raise enough money to keep Montana's horse racing industry going. They've been having problems with stagnant wagering and increasing costs, slowly killing the sport in the state. The Helena Independent Record article has the full details. Horse racing in the US in general has issues, which you can learn more about by reading other posts in the blog.

The Board of Horse Racing was having problems launching the game working with private industry sources, so the Montana Lottery has come in and will develop and operate the game, taking the piece of the action that is authorized for that component. Fantasy football will be the first game, hopefully followed by other sports, such as baseball and NASCAR.

The fantasy sports industry has been historically leery of being confused with gambling, as some with a particular axe to grind have been prone to promote. This application, although based on fantasy sports, is not the same as typical fantasy sports games, which are contests. This game is being structured as a regulated, legal wagering game.

KFFL has a nice short article regarding fantasy sports and gambling which helps to highlight the differences and eliminate confusion. Now this is just going on in Montana. What if this expands to Vegas? If you don't think fantasy sports is hot, you haven't been paying attention!