When North Carolina’s mobile sports betting market officially launches in the coming months, the tax revenue will bring much-needed funding to the athletic departments of several smaller colleges in the state. 

“It’s game-changing for us,” UNC Pembroke Athletic Director Dick Christy told WUNC. “It’s not an exaggeration to say we were really running out of options on how to sustainably fund athletics in the state of North Carolina.”

North Carolina sports betting legislation allots $300,000 annually for the athletic departments of 13 colleges and universities. Those 13 schools are: 

If there aren’t enough funds to cover the $300,000 of funding for each institution — it’ll take $3.9 million to sufficiently provide funding to all 13 schools — the money gets reduced proportionally so each university receives an equal amount. If there’s additional funding available, 20% of it gets split among the 13 schools. 

Even if the full $300,000 allocation isn’t reached, many of the athletic departments should benefit from the influx of funding. 

“Athletics on a campus like ours, it just makes business sense, right?” Christy said. “Our students are on partial scholarships, and for them to be in Pembroke, North Carolina, and getting their education here and spending money here, it’s actually more revenue positive for the university to have those students on-campus than it would be not to. 

“At most Division II schools, it’s part of their business plan, it’s part of their enrollment strategy — they need to have successful and robust athletics. So, to largely be funding it makes sense for them. And for us to be able to diversify the color of money with which the university can fund it through this legislation is going to be huge, because now it allows us to try and make that square peg fit and round hole, so to speak, with how North Carolina has been funding it in the past.”

The North Carolina Lottery has yet to announce an official launch date for mobile sports betting in the Tar Heel State, but most signs point to a pre-March Madness bow. The lottery previously shared that it won’t go live prior to the Super Bowl on Feb. 11. 

March Madness begins on March 19, and several sports betting operators have hinted at a March launch in recent press releases. Fanatics Sportsbook recently said it anticipates North Carolina’s sports betting market going live in March, and BetMGM and other North Carolina betting apps have shared similar statements. 

The North Carolina Lottery Commission’s sports betting committee is scheduled to meet on Jan. 30 at 11 a.m. The full lottery commission will meet on Feb. 7. It’s possible the official launch date gets shared at one of those two meetings.