Washington, D.C.’s sports betting market could undergo a major shakeup in 2024.
At Thursday’s meeting of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development (CBED), the D.C. Lottery suggested that GambetDC no longer be the sports betting app with the most online access across the District. The lottery stopped short of saying the market should be opened up to all mobile operators, though.
Instead, the lottery suggested its contract with third-provider Intralot be extended. Rather than Intralot operating GambetDC, however, Intralot would subcontract a private operator like betting app.
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Intralot’s contract with the D.C. Lottery will expire in July. During the five-year contract, GambetDC has consistently failed to meet expectations and upset customers.
The app features subpar odds, a confusing interface, and the iOS version even crashed during the 2022 Super Bowl. Still, the lottery has stood up for GambetDC’s long-term potential throughout its public challenges.
That changed Thursday when the lottery suggested a new operator be given mobile access in the District. Currently, BetMGM and Caesars Sportsbook have mobile access within a two-block radius of their retail sportsbooks. GambetDC alone can be accessed throughout the rest of the District, except for federally excluded areas.
CBED Chair Kenyan McDuffie was miffed by both the timing of the suggestion and the lack of information shared with the committee.
“I’m incredulous,” McDuffie said.
The lottery’s executive director, Frank Suarez, was unable to share when, exactly, the agency began discussing the possibility of subcontracting an operator with Intralot. He said the process began in “November or December,” but couldn’t which month.
Suarez also suggested that Intralot has a private operator it wants to subcontract for the mobile app, but he was unable to publicly share which one. Suarez said the lottery feels confident with the operator Intralot has suggested.
The exchanges between McDuffie and Suarez were tense throughout the meeting. One of the more heated discussions came when McDuffie questioned why the lottery gave the go-ahead to Intralot on its selected mystery subcontractor.
“Are you asking us not to approve it?” Suarez said. “If you’re asking us not to approve it, then we can go back and look at that.”
McDuffie was displeased with Suarez questioning him during the hearing.
“I’m gonna ask the questions; you answer the questions,” McDuffie said.
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In Suarez’s plan, the contract with Intralot would get extended but mobile sports betting in the District would essentially run through the subcontracted operator. This, theoretically, would lead to a better-performing app.
“The reality is, once you change the platform, there’s not much for Intralot to be doing,” Suarez said.
Given Intralot’s struggles running GambetDC, it begs the question: Why should any new sports betting plan still involve Intralot? Several representatives from major sportsbooks, including Fanatics Sportsbook, spoke to the committee about opening up D.C.’s mobile market to multiple operators. The operators argued that this is the best solution for bettors and tax revenue creation.
The lottery argued that states like New Hampshire have a sole operator system. DraftKings is the lone proprietor in that state, but DraftKings Government Affairs Manager Matt Scalf said Thursday that New Hampshire’s betting launch took place in 2019, before some of New Hampshire’s neighboring states added competitive sports betting markets.
“The data is not an apples to apples comparison,” Scalf said.
McDuffie thanked Scalf for his insight and suggested that Virginia’s sports betting markets change the complexion of what might work best in D.C.
“Just looking at the data we’re seeing coming out of Virginia and Maryland, it appears that they’ve been eating our apples,” McDuffie said.
Both the lottery’s suggestion and an open, competitive market are expected to be considered by the D.C. Council in the coming weeks and months.
