The NFL, the other major pro sports leagues, and the NCAA headed to Philly today for a hearing before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit regarding the question of whether Delaware’s plan to allow sports betting should be stayed until the litigation challenging the move could be resolved.
Instead, the federal appeals court scuttled all single-game betting.
Per published reports, the court found that the new Delaware plan would violate the 1992 federal law prohibiting any sports betting, with an exemption available to states that employed sports wagering from 1976 to 1990.
Apparently, the court prohibited only the attempt to legalize single-game betting, which was not part of the Delaware plan in 1976. The NFL has argued that Delaware should be allowed at most under the federal law to allow multiple-game wagers on pro football games, since that’s the specific program the state previously used.
The maneuver is unusual. The appeals court skipped over the question of whether the betting would be stayed pending resolution of the litigation -- and then resolved one of the most important pieces of the litigation against Delaware.
The NFL separately is challenging whether the multi-game betting program violates the Delaware Constitution.