Draftkings Sportsbook Georgia
The office of Georgia’s attorney general believes daily fantasy sports constitute illegal gambling under state law, according to a letter obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Legal Sports Report obtained a copy of the full letter, which can be read here.
According to Monday’s DraftKings and Mashantucket Pequot statement, sports betting and online gaming are projected to generate $175 million in new revenue for the state over five years. As New Jersey, Pennsylvania, soon Michigan, and anyone who has ever sat down at a slot machine knows, the real casino moneymaker is slot machines, and to a.
Georgia becomes the seventh state in which an AG’s office has reached this conclusion; eight, if you include Nevada, where it has been deemed gambling requiring a license.
You will not be able to bet using the Draftkings sportsbook app from Georgia. GA residents can, however, set up a sports betting account with other fine mobile websites serving the state. When it opened, sportsbooks had Alabama’s moneyline odds at -195 with Georgia at +155. DraftKings lists Alabama at -200 and Georgia at +145. The Crimson Tide is getting 50% of the bets on their side in addition to 59% of the handle. Is the public right?
The letter does not constitute a “formal opinion” about the legality of DFS that has been issued in a variety of other states.
A regulatory effort in the state seems to have been scuttled as a result, as well.
What the AG’s letter says about DFS
A letter from a deputy AG in Georgia, Wright Banks Jr., was written to the Georgia Lottery, according to the AJC. In it, Banks dismisses both the “skill game” and “actual contestant in a game of skill” arguments advanced by DFS operators in other states:
In daily fantasy sports, a participant whose purported skill level has not changed from one game to the next is just as likely to win one tournament, then lose the next tournament due to the performance of players outside of the participant’s control.
And later, on the exclusion in Georgia allowing prizes for “actual contestants” in a contest of skill:
The purpose of the exclusion is to allow athletes competing in the sporting events to be rewarded for their efforts, not for people to receive compensation for betting on the outcome of those events or the performance of a particular athlete…
Banks offers at the end of his letter that this is his “informal advice.”
DraftKings’ reaction
DraftKings offered the following statement via one of its lawyers, Randy Mastro:
“We are disappointed that the Georgia Lottery Corporation is seeking to bar Georgia citizens from continuing to enjoy the fantasy sports they love.
There is no legal or other basis for depriving Georgians of this popular recreational activity. DFS is a legitimate business activity that has operated openly and permissibly in Georgia for years. It is the citizens of Georgia, through their elected representatives, who should decide whether they can continue to enjoy fantasy sports.
DraftKings will therefore support legislation that regulates fantasy sports with thoughtful and appropriate consumer protections, and we urge Georgians to tell their elected representatives that they want to be able to continue to enjoy fantasy sports. “
The backstory of DFS in Georgia
The lottery, dating all the way back to October, had wondered aloud how DFS was legal under state law. That’s when it sent letters to both DraftKings and FanDuel asking them about their legal arguments for operating in Georgia. The letter can be seen here.
The interest in DFS from the AG’s office dates back to at least November, when AG Sam Olens indicated his office was investigating DFS. Whether the letter reported by the AJC is the sum total of the AG’s interest is unknown.
More weight on the scale on “actual contestant”
The idea that DFS players are “actual contestants” in a contest of skill is one of the major tenets of operators’ defense of legality. And it’s one that has now been dismissed by a number of AG’s:
- Texas AG: We concluded that, although the “exclusion may embrace athletes actually competing in the sporting events you refer to, it does not embrace those who pay entry fees for a chance to win a prize from forecasting the outcome of the events.”
- Illinois AG: Reading the statute as a whole, it is clear that subsection 28-1(b)(2) applies only to the “actual contestants” in the actual sporting event. In the context of daily fantasy sports, the “actual contestant” upon whose performance success or failure is based is the athlete or athletes whose “skill, speed, strength or endurance” determine the outcome.
- Mississippi AG: “Participating in foosball and pool tournaments is not prohibited … but that betting on such games would be.”
The Georgia legislative effort on DFS
It appears that a DFS regulatory bill that recently made it past a Senate committee vote —S 352— is shelved for the time being. The AJC said the bill had been “dropped to the bottom of the Senate calendar” and a later story said the Senate “decided not to take up a bill” on Monday.
Today was the last day for bills from one chamber to advance to the other — called “Crossover Day” in Georgia — meaning it appears the DFS bill is dead in Georgia for now.
It’s difficult to believe that the AG letter coming to light and the fact that the DFS bill not come up for a vote are unrelated.
Also of note: A House bill that would have allowed for casino-style gambling also failed to move on Crossover Day.
If you’re in New Jersey, you have access to DraftKings Sportsbook. Here’s a rundown of where you can find DraftKings for sports betting now and in the future.
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DraftKings Sportsbook online
Here are the states where you can find DraftKings:
DraftKings in NJ
The well-dressed DraftKings NJ sports betting platform operates under the license of Resorts Atlantic City, but it’s available across web and mobile channels statewide. As long as you’re in the state, you can wager.
The product is perhaps more polished and market-ready than we expected from DraftKings. The company was, after all, solely a daily fantasy sports outfit until May 2018.
It was the first online sportsbook in the state and currently is the biggest in terms of revenue.
DraftKings in West Virginia
DraftKings Sportsbook announced a deal in December 2018 to operate WV sports betting via mobile. DraftKings partnered with Penn National Gaming, which runs Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.
DraftKings Sportsbook went live in WV in August, around the same time as rival FanDuel launched. While West Virginia is a relatively small state, it’s still important for DraftKings to expand everywhere it can.
DraftKings in Indiana
The third state for the DraftKings Sportsbook app was Indiana. It was one of the first two sportsbook apps to go live in the state on Oct. 3.
Indiana is not a huge state, but it’s notable for its proximity to several large cities where sports betting is not yet legal, including Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville.
Land-based DraftKings Sportsbooks
Draftkings Sportsbook Tennessee
There are currently two land-based DraftKings Sportsbooks in the US:
- DraftKings Sportsbook at Resorts, in New Jersey
- DraftKings Sportsbook at Scarlet Pearl Resort in Mississippi.
States that may have DraftKings Sportsbooks in the future
Potential for growth is capped in the short term, however. While FanDuel has racked up market-access partnerships throughout the country, DraftKings is still pretty lean on that front.
Here’s the list of states in which you might see the next DraftKings Sportsbook pop up, and it’s not a very long one:
New York
Draftkings Sportsbook In Virginia
Apart from NJ, New York is the only other state in which DraftKings has a confirmed point of entry. It announced a partnership with Del Lago in July 2018 that covers both retail and online/mobile operations. If that materializes, Del Lago could end up christening the first on-property, DraftKings-branded sportsbook in the country.
That’s all well and good, except NY sports betting is not yet in place. Voters approved the activity for four commercial casinos in 2013, but regulators have lagged on implementation. What’s more: that existing law excludes online/mobile wagering, so a new one likely will be required before the DraftKings Sportsbook app launches in NY.
Recent rumblings create some cause for optimism on the retail side, but the timeline for NY sports betting is still very much up in the air.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is a little closer to becoming an online sports betting state than its neighbor. Full legalization came late in 2017, and launch arrived in November 2018.
DraftKings figures to be a candidate to partner with one of the PA casinos, but it would have limited ability to fully leverage its brand. State regulations permit each casino to deploy just a single online/mobile platform displaying its own logo. Each may only use one sports betting partner.
About half of the 13 prospective licensees are off the board, it appears:
- SugarHouse/Rivers: Owned by Rush Street, which has a partnership with Kambi. That’s DraftKings’ supplier, too, but there’s no indication it is part of the deal.
- Parx: Recently announced that it will use GAN to power its operations. It works with Kambi as well.
- Presque Isle/Lady Luck: Both will soon be operated by Churchill Downs, which has established a partnership with SBTech.
- Harrah’s: Parent company Caesars has an NJ partnership with Scientific Games that figures to carry across the border.
It’s also impossible to pin down a timeline for the launch of online PA sports betting, but it’s coming sometime in 2019.
Nevada
This one could be interesting, since Nevada is one of the few states in which daily fantasy sports is explicitly prohibited as a skill game. DraftKings is a sports betting company now, though, an activity that is very much legal and thriving in the Silver State.
It has generally seemed unlikely that DraftKings would pursue Nevada sports betting, but nothing is a given anymore. The company recently announced plans to open an office in Las Vegas, which at least draws a raise of the eyebrow. DraftKings wouldn’t pay for a license to offer DFS as a “gambling” game, but might it do so in the world of widespread sports betting?
Draftkings
It’s also worth noting that CG Technologies is being pushed out of the Nevada market amid a string of gaming violations. Either it or the many sportsbooks it serves will need to find a replacement supplier, and a shiny new option has just become available courtesy of DraftKings.
File that last bit of evidence in the circumstantial folder.
Other candidates
Any state with legal sports betting should be considered a candidate for a DraftKings Sportsbook, really. In this post-PASPA world, company executives have made no secrets about their ambitions.
Rhode Island and Delaware have both legalized sports betting, too. Neither operates mobile betting, however, although it is legal in Delaware. The industries in both states are administered by state-chosen suppliers under the lottery’s direction.
It looks like the states broken down above represent the complete list of candidates for DraftKings Sportsbook in the short term. Despite its early lead, it’s even possible that it could still be stuck in only NJ and Mississippi when the calendar ticks over.
At least they have Barkley.