DOVER, Del. — Delaware will begin full-scale sports betting next week, wasting no time after a US Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for states to implement wagering schemes.
Full-scale sports betting will begin at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Delaware’s three casinos, officials said Thursday. The offerings will include single-game and championship wagering on professional baseball, football, hockey, basketball, soccer, golf, and auto racing.
That means Delawareans will be able to make legal wagers on the NBA finals, which began Thursday night and could run through June 17 if the championship series goes to a seventh game.
‘‘Obviously the key is going to be the football season because the bulk of betting in America is on football,’’ state Finance Secretary Rick Geisenberger said Thursday. ‘‘We’ll learn a little bit in June and July, but we’ll learn a lot more in September.’’
Delaware was able to get a quick start because of prewritten sports betting legislation that was passed in 2009 and a pre-existing wagering system that offers multigame parlay bets on National Football League games.
By virtue of a failed sports lottery experiment in 1976, Delaware was one of only four states, along with Nevada, Montana, and Oregon, that received grandfathered exemptions from the 1992 federal ban on sports gambling that was recently struck down by the Supreme Court.
In 2009, lawmakers authorized the state lottery office to promulgate regulations for betting on any professional or collegiate sporting event, except for games involving Delaware colleges or universities. A federal appeals court shot down the state’s plan, however. It said Delaware was restricted in its grandfathered status under the federal ban to offering multi-game parlay bets on National Football League games.
While the attempt to expand sports betting failed, the 2009 legislation and the state’s experience offering NFL parly betting over the past several years meant the infrastructure for full-scale betting was already in place.
‘‘We’ve had sport betting for nine years, so it’s not new to us,’’ state lottery director Vernon Kirk said Thursday after officials completed live testing on the new system.
For the time being, bettors will have to make wagers in person at a casino, but officials are working on a mobile application that will eventually allow someone who is ‘‘geolocated,’’ or physically present, in Delaware to place bets on a smartphone.
‘‘We certainly think that’s the future of sports betting,’’ said Kirk, adding that the launch of any mobile application is at least several months away.
