The first legal sports bets in Maine were placed at 9 AM on Friday, November 3rd 2023 as the state legalized sports betting. Caesars is the only sportsbook that had a successful launch, with DraftKings coming up, so Caesars is the big winner as the Maine market opens up. There will also be seven retail sports betting locations.
Caesars Entertainment, Inc. entered the Maine market as soon as it was possible to do so. Its flagship sports platform, Caesars Spboortsok, is accepting sports wagers on mobile and desktop in Maine, and it launched through the partnership with three of the Wabanaki Nations: the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Mi’kmaq Nation and the Penobscot Nation. The tribes report that they chose Caesars as their partner because of Caesars’ decades-long history of working with the tribes throughout the country and their committment to tribal sovereignity.
The recognized Indian tribes in Maine were allowed to have control of the online sports betting market. Each tribe can select its own vendor, which means there can be up to four licenses for the Houlton Band of Maliisets, the Mi’kmaq, the Penobscots and the Passamaquoddy tribes.
The tribes in the state will get roughly half of all the earnings from sports wagering. Maine’s General Fund will get 10%, which is projected to be between $3.8m and $6.9m per year.
Caesars obviously struck a deal with three of the four tribes and therefore eliminated a lot of the competition with one stroke. The fourth tribe, Passamaquoddy, has reached an agreement in principle to partner with DraftKings. The sportsbook isn’t live yet so it’s all about Caesars in Maine right now. If it works out, Maine would be the 25th state where DraftKings offers its services.
Land-based casinos in the state are also among the businesses that can request sports betting licenses. There are two: Hollywood Casino Bangor and Oxford Casino. Neither have shown an intent to launch a sportsbook just yet but remain open to sportsbook operators that would want to enter Maine.
Maine therefore joins more than 30 states in allowing sports gambling.
The law that made sports betting legal in Maine went into effect in August 2022, more than a year ago, but the authorities preferred a slow rollout to make sure everything is in order.
About five years ago, the Supreme Court decision regarding PASPA paved the way for states to legalize sports betting, after the state of New Jersey won the case against NCAA, NFL, MLB and NHL. Many states jumped on the opportunity and legalized sports betting, in various ways, while some didn’t change their rigid stance against sports betting.
In Maine, players are allowed to bet on all major sports such as NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and others, including college sports but not high school sports. This excludes Maine college teams regardless if they play in or out of state.
Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) is legal in Maine since August 2017, and Maine was the 15th state to legalize DFS.
The minimum legal age to bet on sports in Maine is 21. To place a bet, bettors must be physically present in the state, whether they are residents or out-of-staters. The geolocation is tracked by the web app.
There are also seven licensed retail betting locations, though these will only take a small chunk of the pie as 87% of bets are projected to be placed online. The two casinos, in Bangor and Oxford, as well as four off-track betting locations in Waterville, Sanford, Bangor and Lewiston will have retail betting facitilites. The Cumberland Fairgrounds has a license as well but the location of their sports betting facility has yet to be determined.
Vermont now remains the only New England state that does not offer legalized sports betting.
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Daniel Horvat 
November 4, 2023 
