North Carolina sports betting will not be operational by the Super Bowl, the state’s lottery commission shared Wednesday. There’s still no projected start date for legal mobile sports betting in North Carolina, according to the commission. 

North Carolina legislation requires the state’s mobile sports wagering market to begin before mid-June 2024. The regulator certainly won’t be ready for sports betting apps to launch in early January, which is the earliest possible start date allowed by the legislation. 

Sterl Carpenter, the lottery’s deputy executive director of gaming compliance and sports betting, shared Wednesday during a meeting of the lottery’s sports betting committee that the commission hopes to receive mobile sports wagering operator applications by Dec. 27. From there, there’s a 60-day window for the lottery to review the applications. 

“The commission and its staff have a year from the passage of the sports betting law to get betting up and running,” Carpenter said. “Because of the variables involved in the process, it is too early to set a start date for sports betting in North Carolina at this time.”

Application materials are expected to be published online and available to the public by early next week at the latest. From there, applicants will have about a month to put their materials together and send them to the commission. 

The commission will then conduct background investigations into each applicant, determining if they’re fit to operate in North Carolina. 

“The commission and staff are committed to getting sports wagering up and running as soon as possible, but some key steps are dependent on the sports betting industry,” Carpenter said. 

While the commission reviews applications, Carpenter wants operators to work on their internal controls to ensure compliance with the commission’s sports betting rules. Once an operator gets approved, it will receive more information from the commission on a go-live plan. 

“We hope to be able to announce a date in the near future about when sports betting will go live in North Carolina,” said Ripley Rand, chairman of the lottery.