Sports betting has been legal in the state of Michigan since 2019, with the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) regulating and overseeing all aspects of the sports betting market.
Among other things, the board is in charge of determining which sports and competitions Michigan bookmakers allow bettors to wager on. All the competitions that are legal to bet on in the state are listed in the Board’s Sports Wagering Catalog, which is regularly updated when new sports or competitions are approved.
The catalog includes popular sports such as boxing, soccer, and tennis, as well as major sporting competitions within the US such as the NFL’s SuperBowl and NBA Playoffs. Sports such as lacrosse, ice hockey, and cricket have also been added to the list in recent months.
The MGCB is also considering requests to add events by the Professional Long Drivers Association (PLDA) and Magic City Jai Alai added to the catalog. The latter is a jai alai fronton in Miami.
A new professional football league that is scheduled to be revived this year — the United States Football League (USFL) — has now also submitted a request to be added to this list. If the request is granted, Michigan football lovers would be allowed to place real money bets on this new league, which will feature the Michigan Panthers as one of the eight teams to play in its inaugural season.
“The MGCB recently received a request to add the USFL as a new league in the Sports Wagering Catalog,” said Mary Kay Bean, spokeswoman for the MGCB.
“The request is being reviewed. If approved, the agency will add the league to the catalog. We do not have a target date for completion of the review.”
The league starts in April. The first season will be played in Birmingham, Alabama in its entirety. While there is no deadline on the MGCB’s decision on whether to allow USFL betting, a decision is expected to be reached before the start of the season.
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USFL Making Progress Toward Legal Sports Betting
At this time, Michigan football fans can only make bets on the NFL and the Canadian Football League (CFL). This would make the USFL the third professional football league listed with major legal bookmakers.
The league has recently entered a partnership with Sportradar, which provides major sports betting sites with statistics and real-time updates for a variety of sports.
“With more than 60% of American adults living in states where sports wagering is now legal, it was critical to the new USFL that we partner with the market leader in integrity solutions,” said Edward Hartman, Executive Vice President for Business Operations at the USFL. “Sportradar is the gold standard to which all sports information businesses are measured.”
What is the USFL?
The United States Football League, aka the USFL, is a professional football league that went defunct in 1986 and has not been played since. The league is now being relaunched and is scheduled to restart in April 2022 with the inaugural season featuring players and teams from all over the country.
The league is set to feature eight teams, split into two divisions — South and North. The league will run through July 3 and will see every team play 10 games. For the inaugural season, all games will be played at both Protective Stadium and Legion Field, both located in Birmingham, AL.
