D.C. online sports betting is suspended amid budget uncertainty – The Washington Post

FanDuel, the only online platform that offers citywide sports gambling in D.C., said it stopped accepting bets as of Tuesday because Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) had not yet signed the citys budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which allows for the continuation of sports betting in the city.

In a statement to The Washington Post, FanDuel said it would resume sports betting operations in the city upon final approval of the FY2025 DC Budget.

Bowser spokeswoman Susana Castillo initially told The Post on Tuesday morning that the mayor received the budget legislation the contents of which go well beyond sports gambling on Thursday and that she has 10 business days to review it. Later Tuesday afternoon, in a move that appeared to remedy the issue, Castillo said the mayor returned the budget to the D.C. Council without her signature or a veto, allowing the sports gambling provision to take effect immediately.

A spokesman for FanDuel did not immediately respond Tuesday evening to a request for clarification on the companys plans in the wake of the mayors move.

FanDuel replaced Gambet DC, the citys failed attempt to get citywide sports betting off the ground, in April, and it was scheduled to be joined by BetMGM, which was supposed to go live on a citywide basis Monday (it previously was available online only to gamblers who were within a two-block radius of Nationals Park, where the company offers a brick-and-mortar sportsbook). However, the BetMGM app Tuesday continued to say that it would allow bets only within proximity of Nationals Park.

After an announced event promoting its expanded D.C. offerings was canceled Monday, BetMGM said Tuesday through a spokesperson that the initiative was in a pause.

Caesars Sportsbook reportedly also was supposed to go live on a citywide basis Monday, but as of Tuesday, it, too, said gamblers needed to be in proximity to Capital One Arena, where it operates a brick-and-mortar sportsbook.

FanDuel said its brick-and-mortar sportsbook at Audi Field continues to accept wagers despite the pause in its online operations.

It was not immediately clear late Tuesday afternoon how quickly FanDuel would resume operations after Bowser returned the budget to the council or when BetMGM or Caesars Sportsbook would begin citywide mobile operations.

GambetDC, Washingtons first attempt at a mobile sports betting app that was available citywide, was a dismal failure, bringing in only $4.3 million over a four-year period, well short of the $84 million that was projected. To remedy this, Intralot the Greek company that operates the D.C. Lottery and in 2019 was awarded a five-year, no-bid contract by the D.C. Council to develop GambetDC subcontracted with FanDuel to replace GambetDC, and it brought in $1.9 million to the city in its first 30 days alone.

Last month, the D.C. Council gave final approval to the citys $21 billion budget for fiscal 2025, which included a bill to expand the citys sports-betting offerings, with up to seven licenses up for grabs. But in a letter sent to Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D) on June 5, before the Council approved the new budget, FanDuel President Christian Genetski said that if the city opened up sports gambling to other companies, FanDuel would terminate its contract with Intralot, under the terms of which it paid the city 40 percent of its gaming revenue, and instead move forward as an independent operator, where it would be required to pay the city only 20 percent of its gaming revenue plus the costs of acquiring a gaming license.

In essence, FanDuel will be able to keep more revenue for itself under the terms of the citys expanded sports-betting landscape.

Intralot, meanwhile, appears to be out of the D.C. sports-betting business. On June 28, the Office of Lottery and Gaming sent a one-year, $39 million contract extension with Intralot to the D.C. Council that was deemed approved Thursday. The contract extension, which went into effect Tuesday, requires Intralot to continue providing lottery services for the city but states that the company shall not be required to operate or offer any retail, mobile and internet sports wagering in the District. The extension also contains provisions to ensure players who made bets through GambetDC and the FanDuel-branded platform can collect winnings.

Once again, the Office of Lottery and Gaming has created unnecessary confusion by prematurely releasing the contractor from their responsibilities. The Mayor is reviewing the budget and we expect this to be resolved soon, D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (I-At Large) said in a statement to The Post.

The Office of Lottery and Gaming did not provide a comment to The Post.

BetMGM was the first to announce its expanded presence in the city, while DraftKings which is available in 25 states and is one of the most heavily used sports betting apps in the country said June 25 that it was looking forward to the potential opportunity to introduce D.C. sports fans to our mobile sportsbook product.

The budget language says new holders of Class A sports-betting licenses could begin offering online sports gambling to people within D.C.s borders as of Monday, but because Bowser hadnt yet taken action on the bill, expanded online sports betting was at least temporarily disallowed. This may explain why BetMGM and the other newcomers have yet to offer sports gambling to the entire city.

View original post here:

D.C. online sports betting is suspended amid budget uncertainty - The Washington Post