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Is there are more famous sports team owner in the United States than Jerry Jones? No, right?
First of all, he’s the owner of what’s arguably the most famous team in the country — the Dallas Cowboys. This team happens to play in the league that’s the most popular, NFL. And as for Jerry, well, he’s a character in his own right and has been for decades.
All this is why Jerry’s words carry extra weight in Texas and the sports world. Now that the season is back, he’s chatting again. Not about the team’s performance (yet), but more about the revenue the team is missing out on by not having legal sports betting. Keep reading and we’ll tell you all about it.
Revenue Being Lost By No Sports Betting Laws In Texas
Jones is a big enough character that his business chops get forgotten too easily. Here’s a guy who bought the Cowboys for under $200 million in 1989. Today? They’re the most valuable sports property at over $10 billion. That’s 50X value creation in 35 years by Jones.
That doesn’t just happen by accident. No, it takes master business management for years on end. Jones turned elite branding (“America’s Team), sponsorships, merchandising, and a world-class stadium into an empire that will outlast the 81-year-old Jones.
So the man knows the business. Well, take his word for it, his business is giving up hundreds of millions of dollars by not having legalized sports betting in Texas. Here’s what he recently told reporters at the end of August:
“I think ultimately you’ll have sports betting in the state of Texas. Until that time, the state does lose an opportunity for huge amounts of revenue,” the Cowboys owner said.
We’re now at 38 states with legalized sports betting in the United States. Texas is one of 12 without it in any capacity. Lawmakers in the state are taking a holier-than-thou approach to sports betting and sticking to their conservative roots. Jones has a proper response to that too:
“I think that properly, properly supervised, by the people that play the games and people that have the teams that play the games and the individual athletes — you’ve got to make sure that the perception is, and the reality is that there’s just no compromising on it all being very competitive and up-and-up. I think that takes some time in some places more than it does others.”
What’s funny is that Jones has still found a way to make money off this sports betting boon even if it’s not directly in Texas. Jones, along with Bob Kraft of the New England Patriots, are early investors in DraftKings. It’s said to be less than 5 percent stake for each combined. But when DraftKings is valued at just under $19 billion like it is right now, that’s still a huge windfall. Told you Jones is a master businessman.
Anyways, back to Texas. When will sports betting become legal there as Jones alluded to? We have some guesses in the next section.
Legal Sports Betting Not Likely Until 2028
Eilers & Krejcik Gaming is a leading consulting company in the betting industry. They released a new report and it wasn’t kind to Texas betting chances. Here’s an exact quote from the study:
“We previously projected that Texas would legalize in November 2025 via ballot measure and then launch in fall 2026. We’ve now pushed the timeline back a legislative session,” EKG said in its report.
Translation: Texas bettors might have to sit tight until at least 2027 before they see any legislation make it through the House and Senate. And even then, the earliest it could launch would be 2028. It’s just a forecast, but when EKG speaks, the betting world listens.
The big roadblock? It’s all about politics, as usual. The opposition in Texas hasn’t softened, particularly in the Senate. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who is second only to the governor in power, has made no secret of his distaste for any form of betting — sports or otherwise. He’s had plenty to say, but this quote sums it up nicely:
“Texas is a red state. Yet the House vote on sports betting was carried by a Dem majority. The Texas Senate doesn’t pass bills with GOP in the minority. The GOP majority guides our path.”
In other words, the 2023 sports betting bill may have scraped by in the House, but it was dead on arrival in the Senate. The Senate’s staunchly Republican majority remains mostly aligned against legalization.
Ironically, it’s not even Jones who’s pushing for sports betting the most in the state of Texas. The strongest efforts are coming from the new Dallas Mavericks owner, Miriam Adelson. She’s donated hundreds of millions to in-state Republicans to sway their opinions and maybe, just maybe create a new sports arena and casino hybrid — that’s the hope, at least.
But as it stands, it’s not a very realistic hope. There just seems to be no momentum to have retail sportsbooks or mobile betting apps in Texas right now.
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