Circa Lands Arizona Sports Betting License

Circa Sports, known to many sharp bettors as the regulated bookmaker of choice, is entering Arizona.

Las Vegas-based Circa’s foray into neighboring Grand Canyon State was announced earlier Monday by Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG). It’s the result of a recently concluded bidding period in which the state sought to add to its roster of existing sportsbook operators.

Under the terms of the 2021 legislation that authorized online sports wagering in Arizona, the state can award up to 20 sportsbook licenses – 10 to tribal entities and 10 to professional sports teams located in the state. A launch date for Circa in Arizona wasn’t revealed, but the ADG said it’s working with the gaming company on next steps.

Smart Move by Circa Sports

With the fresh approval, Arizona will be the seventh state in which Circa Sports offers online sports wagering. The other six are Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Nevada. The company also operates brick-and-mortar sportsbooks in Illinois, Kentucky and its home state.

The Arizona entry could prove to be a smart move by Derek Stevens’ company. Due to the state’s proximity to Las Vegas, it’s reasonable to say a fair amount of Arizona bettors are familiar with the Circa brand and the bookmaker’s reputation for taking big action. Amid Circa Sports expansion talk several years ago, it was speculated that Arizona could be on the operator’s agenda.

To date, Circa Sports has been selective on the expansion front, opting to eschew states with high sports wagering taxes and those with burdensome hold mandates. For now, those traits don’t apply to Arizona and the state is a rising player on the U.S. sports betting scene.

“Since the inception of legal sports betting and event wagering in Arizona in 2021, people have wagered $35.3 billion, generating approximately $190.6 million in event wagering privilege fees for the state,” according to the ADG.

Arizona Is a Competitive Sports Betting Market

The ADG website lists 14 regulated sportsbook operators, making Circa the fifteenth. That group is dominated by, as is the case in a slew of other states, DraftKings and FanDuel. Other competitors there include Bet365, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook  and Rush Street Interactive (Bet Rivers), among others.

That is to say Arizona is a highly competitive sports betting market. It’s also claimed plenty of victims in just five years as at least eight operators departed the state after failing to gain traction with bettors there.