NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee was the first state to approve the online-only model for sports betting in the country. Now, only fives years after its passage, the Volunteer State is the largest online-only betting markets in the country.

In 2025, an estimated $5.4 billion will be placed on sports bets, surpassing the initial forecast. However, legalized sports betting almost didn't happen in Tennessee.

"I embraced it because it sort of aligned with my Libertarian views, and that is gambling is going to occur whether its legal or whether its not legal," said former State Sen. Steve Dickerson (R- Nashville).

Dickerson sponsored the online gambling bill in 2020.

"The reason I grabbed on to this is because I thought sort of legalizing it would bring it out of the shadows," he told News 2.

However, legalized gambling faced massive opposition, with religious groups and law enforcement opposing it, stating concerns about gambling addiction. In addition, revenue projects were unclear and the governor opposed it as well.

"Some of the objections voiced, some of the moral issues and some of the vice issues, I think by actually bringing it in and have it regulated by the state, it actually diminished those," added Dickerson.

Due to the moral objections, the legislature kept sports betting bottled up in process while polls showed the public overwhelmingly approved and the sports industry eventually did as well.

"I was really surprised as how to broad the support was geographically in the state. We literally had people from Bristol, with the Motor Speedway up there, all the way to the Memphis Grizzlies. Obviously, Nashville and our professional sports teams, they were opposed to it to begin with, then they were ambivalent and by the time 2020 rolled around, they had actually come to support it," Dickerson said.

"So we had geographic support that spanned the three grand divisions of the state. We had business leaders; we had people within the sports business world who supported it and I think the momentum just really built right there,' he continued.

A big concern for sports betting was if it would attract a criminal element and if crime itself would increase. However, that did not happen.

"I think by legalizing sports gambling, you take a lot of the potential for the abuse, the payoffs and the buying of referees off the table, because the vast majority of the money that is gambled now is through one of these online vendors and they can track who's gambling, who's betting, if there is a big spike right before a game," Dickerson explained.

The other great unknown was revenue. Dickerson pointed to the growing number of college and pro sports fan, who want to bet and are betting, for the projections out the roof.

"I thought if anything we were going to undershoot our mark and we, I think, have gone way beyond our wildest expectations," he said. "To be fair, I did not pass this as a revenue bill. I passed it because I thought it was the right thing, sort of a social construct to bring it out in the open and try to bring light to it, the revenue was kind of a nice add-on to it. I'm happy it's coming and I hope kids are able to use the money to help offset college expenses."

In 2024, $5.2 billion was waged on sports bets in Tennessee. Meanwhile, the projection for 2025 is that $5.4 billion will be waged on sports bets in the state.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/special-reports/how-sports-betting-became-legal-in-tennessee/