FanDuel announces sportsbook at Meadowlands
FanDuel announced Thursday that it will open the first legal sportsbook on the grounds of an NFL stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey on Saturday. FanDuel said its 5,300-square-foot sportsbook will become part of the Meadowlands Racetrack. The track is next to MetLife Stadium, which is the home of the New York Jets and New York Giants. The sportsbook will have 10 tellers to take bets at the outset. "We're hoping to be able to coordinate with [the Giants and Jets] so that their customers, if they get there early and want to make a bet, they could [come to the sportsbook] and then we could shuttle them to the stadium," Jeff Gural, chairman and CEO of Meadowlands Racing and Entertainment, told ESPN. Laws allowing legal sports betting in New Jersey and Delaware took effect in June. The NFL has been against legalized gambling and asked that Congress, and not individual states, make the gambling laws. The states were given the right to make their own decisions when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was unconstitutional. Helen Strus, vice president of event marketing at Meadowlands Sports Complex, said in a prepared statement that MetLife Stadium officials are "evaluating the options, but no decisions have been made" regarding potential stipulations the stadium would impose on the sportsbook. FanDuel will be the first online betting site to run a physical sportsbook. --Field Level Media
