Washington DC’s sports betting app, GambetDC, has been a spectacular failure since it launched in May 2020. However, its ignominious tenure has finally ended. As of Monday, April 15th, it has been replaced by sports betting industry titan, FanDuel.
End of an Error
The Greek gaming corporation, Intralot, received a five-year, no-bid contract to create a unique sports betting app dubbed GambetDC that was expected to generate $84 million by January 2024 but instead delivered a stunningly disappointing $4.3 million.
The platform has been riddled with problems from the onset and has caused users to turn away in droves with complaints ranging from a glitchy interface to point spreads and odds that were uncompetitive compared to the mainstream mobile sportsbooks.
Sports betting reporter and consultant Dustin Gouker put it succinctly when he said, “In the long term, a bettor is not gonna win as much as they would have won at another sportsbook. Someone who’s in DC can just go into Virginia and Maryland and see a better app with better lines.”
Despite recent improvements being made to the GambetDC app, you only get one chance to make a good first impression, as the saying goes, and the stigma remains.
Frank Suarez, Executive Director of the D.C. Office of Lottery & Gaming, understood a change of course was overdue and said, “There’s an opportunity for us to get one of the private operator apps that players feel is much better than what we’re providing. It launched with a sort of clunky, not user-friendly app. And I think even with the changes we made to the interface, there’s still player perception the odds aren’t as good, and the app isn’t going to work as well… we just realized those perceptions would be difficult to change and it would be best to go ahead and just replace the platform.”
The Solution
Bettors in the District of Columbia have plenty of alternatives to GambetDC if they want to travel a short distance to gain access to the retail sportsbooks located at the Capital One Arena (Caesars), Nationals Park (BetMGM), and Audi Field (FanDuel). Or they could cross the border into Virginia and Maryland and make a wager from any of the mobile sports betting apps in those states.
But as of April 15th, FanDuel has replaced GambetDC in the DC market and brought its state-of-the-art technology to an audience that has been thirsting for a better solution. GambetDC customers will not automatically be migrated to the FanDuel platform. They will have to withdraw any funds they have in GambetDC by October 15th, when accounts will be deactivated, and then open an account with FanDuel.
There is a possibility that the DC market will eventually open to several online sportsbooks, but the tact at this point is to use FanDuel exclusively as Washington DC’s official mobile betting app. Former council member Elissa Silverman had previously introduced legislation to open the market up to multiple mobile sports betting platforms but that legislation did not survive.
Melissa Davis, a spokesperson for DC’s Office of Lottery and Gaming, said her office still “believes that maintaining a District-operated sportsbook as the sole mobile and online operator best accomplishes its mission to maximize revenue for the District.”
