Earlier this year, some pretty disappointing updates came in for the Oklahoma betting push, as the sports betting bill on the table didn't move on in the Senate. There was hope that with this bill, not only would things get legalized in the near future, but there was even a launch date in mind for around Nov. 1. However, things fell through and believe it or not, but even the OKC Thunder were impacted by the sports betting failure.
That's right, the Senate went ahead and shot down a sports bill that had serious movement in Oklahoma, only for things to be shot down. This was a major bummer for the Thunder, as they were one of the major entities who ended up endorsing that bill. The team's ownership group was ready for things to move in the right direction here, but the opposite ended up being the case. Because of this, plenty of local citizens are not happy about this either.
"The OKC Thunder and a supermajority of tribes in the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association announced their support for the measure on Tuesday after the parties reached an agreement to revise the bill," local news outlet KOSU wrote shortly after this news broke. "But a spokesperson at the Oklahoma Governor’s Office wrote that Gov. Kevin Stitt does not support expanding the state’s tribal gaming compact."
The fact that Governor Kevin Stitt didn't do anything to help out the efforts only has people a bit more frustrated. All in all, the hope was that legal sports betting would have made its way to the state before the start of the new football season, but that's not going to end up happening. It will be interesting to see if things change there down the road, but there isn't much optimism surrounding this battle right now.
❝Our goal is to repeat a process, not chase an outcome. This process is to position our team and our organization so that if we are fortunate enough to have things break our way, we can achieve ultimate success. This is how every NBA champion is able to achieve success.❞
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 8, 2026
Prediction markets are still on the rise across Oklahoma
What makes things worse here for the state is that prediction markets are still on the rise across Oklahoma, as local bettors continue to find a way to place their bets. This has been an ongoing issue throughout the basketball season. With the Thunder in particular, countless people in Oklahoma put money on the NBA powerhouse to repeat as the national champs.
The Thunder had incredible NBA betting odds to win the Finals, which had people thinking they'd win another title. However, the Thunder ended up losing to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, losing at home in Game 7. Despite that, a ton of futures bets went in on the Thunder, and this is something that officials are not happy about.
“It does not create a new avenue of gambling. You can legally make a sports bet right now, and it's unregulated and we get nothing,” Senator Bill Coleman said via an interview with KOSU. “This bill contains a regulated alternative to legal sports betting with platforms who are very concerned about problem gaming.”
As you can see, Coleman tied in the bill failing with the prediction markets still being able to operate in Oklahoma. This is an issue that people are hoping will get resolved soon, but again, this latest setback provides a bit of an issue for the Sooner State, there's no doubt about that.
What's next for the Oklahoma sports betting push?
A big question people have on their minds right now is what's next for the Oklahoma sports betting push? That's hard to say, as this felt like a great chance for things to be given the green light. However, it has become even more clear that getting the opposition to meet in the middle is going to be an incredibly difficult task.
Stitt not supporting things either is a major concern. He's the leader of the state, and you'd think he'd be all aboard the state being able to bring in more tax revenue through sports betting. For now, that's not the case and that was once again evidenced with this latest decision that has come in, which no one likes.
In the meantime, prediction markets will continue to be under operation, and Oklahoma won't see a dime in terms of revenue. It's back to the drawing board for the Oklahoma sports betting push, but at this point, it's starting to feel like people may have to wait until 2028 for some good news to come in. We also would not be shocked if things get delayed even further than that too. It's all a bit of a shame.
