HELENA — The Montana Lottery Commission voted February 20 to approve the kinds of bets people can make, and which sports they can bet on, for “Sports Bet Montana.”
Lottery officials estimate that Sports Bet Montana betting kiosks will be in the field beginning the week of March 9.
“We are in the home stretch of our planning and testing,” said Jennifer McKee, Montana Lottery communications manager. “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 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.
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 betting, 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.
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.
Here is a breakdown of the approved betting types and how they’ll work with Sports Bet Montana.
- Moneyline bet: Moneyline is a term for the game/match winner. Money line is offered as a head to head bet with no spread. The player is betting on one side simply to win.
- Over/under: Sometimes described as a total bet, over/under is a bet on the total combined score of both teams or player stats. The player selects if the total score for the event will be lower or higher than the line that is set.
- In-game betting: this is when you place a bet on an event in a game while it is happening.
- Parlay: A parlay bet allows the player to combine multiple bets together into one single wager. Players get increased odds if all their bets win; however, if any one of the bests lose, the entire wager is lost.
- Prop bet: Proposition bets are wagers on a very specific outcome during an event that does not relate to the final score. For example, betting on a hole in one happening at the Masters Golf Tournament.
- Spread: Spread or point spread is the number of points by which the better team is favored over the underdog.
- Future bet: A future bet is made for an event that is taking place sometime in the future, usually on a team to win a series or a championship.
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.
