Oregon Sports Betting App Faces Delay, But One Sportsbook Is Open

When will you be able to bet on sports online in Oregon? Soon, but not yet.

When the Oregon Lottery set a launch date that coincided with the start of the 2019 NFL season for “Scoreboard” — the Beaver State’s new legal sports betting app — it was simply intended to give staff a target date to help build a sense of urgency.

Delaying that date to conduct additional testing wasn’t meant to frustrate sports bettors anxious to make NFL opening day wagers, even though that may have been a consequence.

Regardless, the good news for everybody is that an end is in sight. There are no major problems to be worked out, the state is fine-tuning the app to make sure every glitch in the integration process – no matter how small – is thoroughly investigated and resolved.

Oregon sports betting this year

“We’re going to be up and running in time for football season,” said Matthew Shelby, public information manager with OSL, on Tuesday. “It’s just a matter of weeks at this point.

“We are driven by the ability to provide our customers with a safe, secure and entertaining product. We are not driven by an arbitrary date.”

The fact that the Oregon Lottery is a government agency acting as sportsbook operator creates some extra complications, Shelby said. Not only does the lottery have to follow standard regulations like any other commercial sportsbook operator, it also must comply with strict monetary laws specific to state government entities.

The lottery will handle the Scoreboard app’s front end, collecting and storing player registration and verification, taking deposits and geofencing security. SBTech, a global company in omni-channel sports betting and gaming, will provide the sports betting technology and back end support.

“The apps are functional,” Shelby said. “Right now, we’re making sure we have full integration throughout the whole system and that we are confident and comfortable with the fixes that are being made.”

The Scoreboard app will have in-play functionality, he added, but will only be accessible from Android and Apple mobile devices, at least at first.

Chinook Winds Casino Resort retail sportsbook open for business

One Oregon area that will need to be geofenced from using the Scoreboard app is the Chinook Winds Casino Resort on the Pacific coast near Lincoln City, as well as all land belonging to any tribe.

Chinook Winds opened a brick-and-mortar sportsbook on August 27, in plenty of time for the NFL’s opening kickoff. Former Dallas Cowboy, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, placed the first bet in the new sports wagering lounge.

The Confederated Tribes operate under a compact with the state, overseen by a division of the Oregon State Police. There are other differences between Oregon Lottery app and the tribal sportsbooks, as well. While OSL bettors will not be able to bet on collegiate action, Chinook Wind’s sportsbook bettors are happy to say that they can.

“We got really busy, had good attendance that first weekend, because the Oregon Ducks were playing in a basketball tournament in Las Vegas,” said Matt Pond, assistant operations manager of Chinook Winds and manager of the sports betting lounge.

“There was a lot of excitement from fans about making a bet in the first sportsbook in Oregon. We had long lines on Saturday and Sunday for NFL games, but not to the point where people were getting locked out. It’s been going really well.”

Partnered with Las Vegas Dissemination Company (LVDC), Pond said the sportsbook offers Vegas-style betting. The sportsbook features 15 televisions while the sports bar, just down the hall, has three 80-inch TVs for bettors to keep an eye on the action.