With Intralot’s five-year GambetDC must go.
The oft-criticized Super Bowl. The app is expected to be replaced in the near future, and industry experts say the move away from GambetDC is long overdue.
“Frankly, it’s been a shitshow from the word go there,” an industry consultant, who asked to remain anonymous, told Sports Handle.
Numerous failures 3b1h2u
The Super Bowl failure in 2022 was due to an SSL certificate issue, with Intralot accepting the blame for the problem. Intralot paid the lottery $500,000 as a result of the failure and subsequent expected brand damage.
Other concerns with the betting app included subpar odds and a clunky interface. Some improvements were made to the interface in recent years, but the app is still largely viewed as less intuitive than major platforms like FanDuel.
GambetDC ed for just 58% of all bets placed in D.C. in 2023, which was a nearly 10% jump from 2022. Given the minimal online access granted to other operators, it’s disheartening for the lottery and council to see anything close to a 50-50 split in of the numbers of bets placed across an entire year. Much of the boost in numbers from 2023 compared to 2022 came from a strong January, in which the operator accepted more than 220,000 wagers totaling $8.78 million.
GambetDC ed for 39.1% of all handle in D.C. in 2023, pacing all operators. The betting platform ed for 38.67% of revenue in 2023, again leading all operators. Still, the lottery and council wanted to see GambetDC produce at a higher level throughout its existence, especially given its near monopoly on mobile wagering in the District.
GambetDC largely fell short of overall financial expectations, reporting a $4 million loss in its first full year.
Possible changes 3r6k2n
While customers and industry analysts largely agree that GambetDC has been a failure, there’s remaining debate between the lottery, council, and stakeholders about how to best move forward.
“It can’t come soon enough,” Las Vegas-based consultant Brendan Bussmann of B Global Advisors told Sports Handle of GambetDC’s likely departure, “but that said, I hope to God they do it right.”
The lottery suggested that it has a new operator in mind to run online sports betting in the District. Some stakeholders told the council they’d like to see the market open to numerous platforms, rather than just one. They suggest a competitive market will help D.C. offer a product in line with Maryland and Virginia.
“In our best estimate, we believe that the current mobile offering in the District has the market penetration of 1-2% of eligible adults … That means consumers are either traveling out of the District to place a wager, or worse yet, they’re placing wagers in an illegal offshore market,” Brandt Iden, Fanatics Sportsbook’s vice president of government affairs, told the council earlier this month.
Two nationally known apps, Caesars Sportsbook, are currently operational within a two-block radius of their retail sportsbook in D.C. FanDuel has a retail sportsbook at Audi Field, but the operator doesn’t have any mobile access.
Virginia’s sports betting market, which features a robust assortment of betting apps.
Bussmann agrees with Iden that a competitive market is best for the District and its consumers.
“Your market to the north is competitive,” Bussmann said. “Your market to the south is competitive. People go in and out of the District. You need a competitive product.”
The D.C. Council is expected to discuss next steps for GambetDC and sports betting in the District in February, with a meeting tentatively scheduled for Feb. 14.
Chris Altruda contributed to this report.
