The sports betting industry’s most popular app, FanDuel, will be taking over in Washington D.C. after an unsuccessful stint by the District’s sole provider, GambetDC.
Out With the Old
In a town filled with people who are supposed to solve problems, those same people created one when they gave a no-bid contract to a Greek gaming company, Intralot, back in 2019.
Instead of following the wildly successful sports betting blueprints in other states, the folks in Washington decided they could do it better and cheaper by building their own sports betting platform, GambetDC, and having their lottery provider act as the sole operator on behalf of the District of Columbia.
It proved to be a disastrous decision as D.C. residents routinely cross the border into neighboring states to bet with national providers like FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, et al. The reason customers are fleeing is that the app is glitchy and unattractive, and the odds are often uncompetitive with neighboring sites.
In an industry where 90% or more of the bets are online versus retail, in D.C. the opposite is true. At the end of the fiscal year on September 30th, 2023, the data showed $116.2 million was wagered at D.C.’s retail sportsbooks, while just $69.6 million in sports bets were accepted on the GambetDC app. Those numbers are a scathing indictment of how poor the GambetDC app is and why a change was desperately needed.
Hearing the People
With Intralot’s contract expiring on July 15th this year, a decision had to be made. It wasn’t until a council hearing in January that Frank Suarez, head of the D.C. Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG), revealed that his department had heard the people’s grievances and were prepared to make a change.
“We want a bigger brand,” Suarez said. “We want something that players are used to and highly satisfied with, which is why we’re looking to make the change.”
D.C. At-Large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said at an oversight hearing on January 18th, “I have heard from many residents about the unease around the city’s woeful performance on sports betting. … From issues around usability to customer service and seriously declining revenue, we know the current model simply is not working.”
In With the New
Sports betting industry leader, FanDuel, owns 50% of the market share in neighboring Maryland and Virginia, the same locales that welcome disgruntled GambetDC customers. Because many D.C. residents already have FanDuel accounts that they use when they cross the border into those locations, it only made sense that FanDuel would be selected to take over in the District and put the GambetDC app to bed.
FanDuel is now operating as a subcontractor and could take over before the expiration of Intralot’s contract on July 15th, but a specific date has not been revealed.
OLG Director Frank Suarez wrote in a letter, “OLG and Intralot have evaluated the current platform and believe that FanDuel and its industry-leading platform will perform better within the highly competitive DMV region.”
That is not exactly breaking news to the many people who have tried to use the GambetDC app, but better late than never to make the switch. Perhaps the only remaining question is, why so late?
