PLACE YOUR BET.

After a near miss last year, sports betting legislation could be among the hot topics as the long session cranks up.

Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln and a sponsor of the measure, said that he expects the proposal "will look a lot like the bill from last year." But one key change could create tensions between two competing factions among sports betting proponents, both of which have drafted teams of influential lobbyists.

WRAL recently reported that the state s professional sports teams want the legislation to automatically allocate them eight of the 12 available licenses, which would limit the number of licenses available to national gambling operators such as FanDuel and DraftKings.

Lobbyist Ches McDowell has been working on the behind-the-scenes push to legalize sports betting for years. He works for a subsidiary of the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, and got his start in politics working for...