SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.

13 States With Legal Sports Betting? AGA Boss Feeling Lucky About That Number

A dozen states have joined Nevada’s party in time for football season — a figure which some in the U.S. gaming industry find impressive but others might consider mildly disappointing, given how many states spent the year discussing their gambling options.

Count American Gaming Association President Bill Miller — who held a national media conference call on Wednesday — in the former camp.

Full story here.

D.C. Lottery’s Final Regulations Allow Operators To Set Their Own Bet Limits

Sports betting operators in Washington, D.C. will be able to set their own bet limits and the two-block exclusion zone around pro sports facilities has been better defined. Those are two key changes the Office of the Lottery and Charitable Games made to its proposed rules in response to concerns from stakeholders.

The OLG adopted its final sports betting regulations last week, and the new rules were published in the Aug. 30 issue of the D.C. Register. From here, it’s likely that operators could go live with sports betting in the nation’s capital sometime during the first quarter of 2020. The D.C. Lottery’s mobile sports betting app is on track to launch in January 2020.

Full story here.

Looking For An Edge In College Football Betting? Start Studying Officiating Trends

As sports betting expands nationwide, legalized wagering continues to emerge in new jurisdictions known as traditional hotbeds for college football.

Believe it or not when some sharp bettors crunch the numbers before making a wager, the officiating crew for the game can play a significant role on the side that is taken. For years, several major sports betting syndicates have used officiating assignments as a vise in their toolbox for determining a wager, according to two industry sources. Several integrity monitoring services, meanwhile, have compiled a trove of data on sports wagering trends based on the sport’s leading officials.

Full story here.

Oregon Lottery Won’t Launch Sports Betting Before NFL Season Begins

The Oregon Lottery’s “Scoreboard” app won’t launch ahead of the NFL season, a Lottery spokesman told Sports Handle Tuesday. The app, which some patrons got a sneak peak of at the state fair in August and earlier this month, is still in the testing phase, and the decision was made to “get it right” rather than rush.

At last Friday’s Lottery Commission meeting, staff members projected a launch in late September or early October.

Full story here.

Over And Out: NFL Win Totals Betting And The Power Of Optimism, Injuries

For ardent football bettors, the rush to wager on an assortment of NFL season win totals before the season begins has almost become an annual rite of passage.

In a twist of fate, those who waited until the final days before the 2019 kickoff will benefit from a stunning announcement that could shape the direction of the AFC standings. A decision by Andrew Luck to retire from professional football on Aug. 24 led to a two-game adjustment on the Colts’ total at Station Casinos in the Las Vegas Valley.  With a considerable amount of money on the over of 9.5 wins prior to Luck’s announcement, the Colts had trended toward 10 regular season victories, said Chuck Esposito, director of race and sportsbook operations at Sunset Station in Henderson, Nev.

Full story here.