Montana sports betting expected to kick off by mid-March

The Montana Lottery has announced sports betting parameters, and players could potentially be able to start making bets as soon as mid-March.

The Montana Lottery Commission voted Feb. 20 to approve the kinds of bets people can make, and which sports they can bet on for “Sports Bet Montana.”

The approved professional and collegiate sports are: basketball, baseball, ice hockey, football, soccer, tennis, boxing/MMA, golf and motor sports. Approved bets include: Moneyline, Over/under, In-game, Parlay, Spread, Prop bets, and Future bets.

The lottery expects to begin to place Sports Bet Montana terminals the week of March 9. Once the terminal is in place and training has been completed by staff, the licensed location will immediately be able to offer sports wagering.

“We are in the home stretch of our planning and testing,” said Jennifer McKee, Montana Lottery Communications Manager, in a press release. “We are really looking forward to getting Sports Bet Montana in the market and we’re as excited as Montanans are for betting to begin.”

The Montana Lottery says due to the large distances training staff will have to cover, they’ll be soft rolling out the program. Lottery staff will travel to a community and work through all the licensed establishments as quickly as possible, depending on location availability.

The Montana Lottery will roll out their new Sports Bet Montana website in the near future. The site will show players how they can sign up for the Sport Bet Montana app, and have tutorials explaining how each sports wagering bet in the program works.

The lottery launched Sports Bet Montana in December, when it began accepting and processing sports wagering licenses. Since then, the lottery has licensed more than 100 sales agents and continues fine-tuning the communications and technology pieces that will power Sports Bet Montana in the market. Now, most of that work is complete and Montana Lottery crews have begun installing communications equipment in retail locations.