The Oregon Lottery’s online sports betting app, called ‘Scoreboard,’ is expected to launch next week.
According to a tweet from The Oregonian’s John Canzano, the state’s lottery commission will be launching its mobile sports betting app by October 7.
Oregon launched brick-and-mortar sports betting last month when Chinook Winds opened the state’s first sportsbook on August 29. At the time of the announcement, the Oregon Lottery said that the app would be available for residents at the start of the NFL season.
Unfortunately for state residents, the app wasn’t launched in time for them to bet on the first month of games. Chuck Baumann, the senior public affairs officer for the lottery, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the delay was due to the lottery moving into uncharted waters.
“This is the first time that the lottery has entered into an e-commerce game,” said Baumann. “This will be the first time we’ve offered a game – an Oregon lottery game – available online.”
According to Baumann, the platform for the app is complete, but the commission is still testing player accounts. It is still making sure that financial transactions from those accounts move seamlessly. Canzano’s tweet from a few days later said that testing was finished and approval from banking partners was the only thing standing in the way of its launch.
Other states required new legislation to roll out mobile betting. Rhode Island passed an entirely new bill to get online sports betting in the Ocean State, but Oregon doesn’t have to jump over that hurdle because the state lottery already had the authority needed to run sports betting once the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was overturned by the Supreme Court in May 2018.
When PASPA was passed in 1992, Oregon was one of four states allowed to continue to offer the same forms of gambling it offered prior to the law. Until 2007, the Oregon Lottery offered a sports betting game called Sports Action, where gamblers would pick NFL games in a parlay format.
In 2007, the NCAA wouldn’t allow the state to host a men’s basketball tournament game because of the available sports betting in the state. Oregon nixed gambling at the time but already established that the commission can operate online sports betting.
On ‘Scoreboard,’ those within state boundaries can place bets on professional football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf and NASCAR.