Sports Betting Alliance Says Rhode Islanders Placed 4M Bets In Other States

Major online sportsbook operators say Rhode Island accounts placed more than 4 million bets across state lines in a year, and they want lawmakers to open the market to more competition. 

The Sports Betting Alliance, whose members include DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics Sportsbook and BetMGM, released the figures on Thursday, November 12, as it prepares a new push at the State House.

The group said its members registered the bets between July 2025 and July 2026 from nearly 103,000 Rhode Island accounts, placed in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. Bettors must be physically inside a state to wager there, so each one involved a trip over the border. 

Alliance president and CEO Joe Maloney put the total at 4.23 million bets and said expanding the regulated market would keep that action, and the revenue and protections attached to it, in Rhode Island. The figures come from NBC 10 (WJAR).

A One-Operator Market

Rhode Island currently has a single licensed online sports betting platform, SportsBook Rhode Island, run by IGT, which the state authorised as sole provider when online betting was legalised in 2019. That will change soon. 

Earlier this year the Rhode Island Lottery Commission chose Bally's, the state's only casino operator, to launch a second app as IGT's exclusive contract expires later this month. A Bally's spokeswoman told NBC 10 the new platform will launch in December and called it best in class.

The state's position as a small, one-operator market has been debated before. Our earlier coverage looked at whether Rhode Island could pass an online gambling bill after other states had stalled.

The Revenue Share Sticking Point

The operators lobbied hard during the 2026 session for a proposal to allow four to six sportsbooks. Representatives of FanDuel and DraftKings testified in favour. The measure passed the Senate but died in the House. Rhode Island takes 51% of online sports betting revenue, and the proposal would have cut the state's share. 

Lottery regulators opposed it, calling it financially detrimental and arguing it would significantly reduce state revenue. They also said the Rhode Island market cannot support more platforms than the two already approved.

A FanDuel representative told NBC 10 at the time that the company did not bid on the second contract because the state's cut was too high. Only one other company bid against Bally's.

How The Numbers Compare

NBC 10 has reported that Rhode Island collected nearly $18 million in online sports betting revenue over a one-year period. Massachusetts, which takes 20% of revenue and has seven sites running, collected $170 million over the same period. 

That is nearly 10 times Rhode Island's total in a state with roughly seven times the population. The alliance argues Rhode Island could earn an extra $50 million over the next decade under the expansion proposal lawmakers considered this year.

These are industry figures, and Lottery regulators have said they do not expect more operators to raise net revenue for the state. Any expansion would need to clear a House that did not take up the measure this year.