Another online operator was added to the potential roster of gambling operators that Maryland online sports betting customers might have a chance to use in the future.
The Sports Wagering Application Review Commission (SWARC), one of the bodies that is part of the approval process for companies looking to join the sports gambling landscape in the state, awarded a mobile sports wagering license on Wednesday to Queen Sportsbook Maryland LLC, also known as Queen Sports.
This is the 16th mobile sports wagering license SWARC has awarded since the application and approval process began in 2021, when retail and mobile sports gambling became legal in the state.
Lottery & Gaming Approval Is Next Step
However, the “awarding” of the license doesn’t mean that Queen Sports can begin taking wagers immediately as a Maryland sports betting app. The company, when it is ready, will go to the Maryland Lottery & Gaming Control Agency to demonstrate its operations and its compliance with regulations, including in a controlled demonstration.
Assuming that’s done successfully, Lottery & Gaming will “issue” a license to operate.
So far in Maryland, 16 mobile operators have been “awarded” mobile licenses but only nine have completed all the approval steps to be “issued” a license. All nine have begun taking wagers.
In addition to the nine active mobile sportsbooks, there are 10 retail sports wagering facilities, five in casinos, that are open for business in Maryland.
More About Queen Sports
Queen Sports is a subsidiary of Casino Queen Interactive, LLC, which itself is a subsidiary of The Queen Casino & Entertainment, Inc. That company operates casinos in Iowa, Illinois, and Louisiana (two) as well as retail and online sportsbooks.
In addition to awarding the mobile sports wagering license to Queen Sports, the SWARC also approved the required diversity plans for two previous awardees. They are Veterans Services Corporation (Vital Services Contractors, Inc.), which was awarded a mobile sports wagering license, and Whitman Gaming, Inc., which was awarded a sports wagering facility license that would be used in a sports bar in North Bethesda.
To date, the SWARC has received 27 applications for sports gambling licenses – 21 for mobile sports wagering licenses (whose operators offer Maryland sports betting promos) and six for Class B sports wagering facility licenses. Of that number, SWARC has awarded 21 licenses (16 mobile and five Class B facility).
Some additional sports wagering facility operators in the state, such as casinos and some others, were not required to get SWARC approval because they were already designated in the original sports wagering law.
