On the identical listening to, Workplace of Lottery and Gaming Director Frank Suarez introduced that his workplace was working with Intralot — the Greek firm that in 2019 was awarded a five-year, no bid contract by the D.C. Council to develop GambetDC — to discover a extra popular betting provider to replace the platform and instantly enhance town’s monetary returns. Final week as a part of that plan, the lottery workplace introduced that FanDuel would take over someday this spring, with ensures and projections to herald way more income.
Whereas the FanDuel resolution may tackle quick considerations with the GambetDC app, McDuffie mentioned it nonetheless wouldn’t enable metropolis gamblers to decide on between platforms like they will in lots of states. He mentioned it may additionally hamper District companies which have invested in on-site retail sportsbooks, together with town’s three “class A” wagering services based mostly at designated sports activities venues — FanDuel at Audi Discipline, Caesars Sportsbook at Capital One Area and BetMGM at Nationals Park.
The sportsbooks at Capital One Area and Nationals Park supply cell platforms which can be restricted to a two-block radius of the power. If accepted, McDuffie’s laws would take away that geographical restriction for these massive sportsbooks, permitting them to supply their cell platforms citywide, with some exceptions. Maybe extra notably, the invoice would additionally create a brand new sort of cell sports activities betting license out there to sports activities groups who play at venues with an present sportsbook; the Washington Nationals, Wizards, Capitals, Spirit and DC United can be instantly eligible, in response to McDuffie’s workplace.
With that new license in hand and with approval from the lottery workplace, these groups may enter their very own partnerships with cell betting platforms of their selecting. McDuffie believes this new cell license, which beneath his proposal can be dearer and taxed at the next charge than the 2 present retail-based licenses, may quickly enhance the array of choices for bettors.
His workplace believes this particular license would double as an incentive for D.C.’s sports activities groups to stay within the District and proceed investing within the metropolis, an vital issue following Wizards and Capitals proprietor Ted Leonsis’s December announcement that he intends to move the teams from Capital One Area to Northern Virginia. The laws is way more complicated than a 2022 bill launched by a number of lawmakers that may have taken a extra wholesale approach to rising cell choices, whereas terminating Intralot’s contract when it ends. That invoice didn’t advance earlier than the tip of the council’s two-year legislative interval.
However McDuffie mentioned that proposal would have in all probability come on the expense of town’s retail sportsbooks.
“Altering a damaged system is extra sophisticated frankly than beginning up sports activities wagering from scratch,” McDuffie mentioned. “However the basic thought we’d like extra competitors in our metropolis sports activities wagering program is one thing I help, and I feel others will help as properly. And it’s what our shoppers have been demanding.”
The invoice additional revives an effort to dedicate $300,000 in annual sports activities betting income towards efforts to forestall, deal with and analysis playing habit, whereas placing $1 million annually into a brand new “Youth Extracurricular Funding Fund” to spice up out-of-school programming.
McDuffie, who’s introducing the invoice alone and chairs the enterprise committee, mentioned he expects a few of the particulars to be hashed out because the laws strikes via the council. On prime of McDuffie’s invoice, the council will quickly want to think about whether or not to increase Intralot’s contract, which expires in mid-July.
On the January listening to, Suarez mentioned his company would in all probability search to increase Intralot’s contract to present the FanDuel plan extra time to work — a transfer that McDuffie mentioned he wouldn’t help.
Intralot’s plan to herald FanDuel, McDuffie mentioned, “fixes a few of the apparent operational gaps with the GambetDC app, but it surely does so with out addressing different vital considerations just like the broader aggressive choices for shoppers. The [Office of Lottery and Gaming] waited years to take a lot of these steps regardless of what shoppers and residents throughout the District of Columbia have mentioned has been a damaged program. I’m working towards a invoice as a result of the system and this system that they put in place merely doesn’t work.”
