Washington DC delays retail sports betting until summer 2021

The D.C. Office of Lottery and Gaming doesn't expect to launch retail sports betting until the summer of 2021, more than six months after its previous estimate, citing delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The city launched its online sports betting platform, GambetDC, in late May, with too few sports to bet on to have much meaningful impact on the D.C. Lottery's fiscal 2020 revenue. D.C. gaming officials have removed all $9.6 million in anticipated sports wagering revenue from projections for fiscal 2020, according to Lottery Executive Director Beth Bresnahan, who testified during a June 3 budget oversight hearing before the D.C. Council's committee on business and economic development, as reported by Washington Business Journal.

The D.C. Lottery's total projected revenue for fiscal 2020 was decreased from $56.2 million to $34.1 million. The remainder of the decrease, $12.5 million, reflects lower traditional lottery sales as a result of "pandemic-related operational impacts." The agency also reduced its revenue projections for fiscal 2021, from $69.7 million to $51.3 million, though it's unclear how much of that is directly attributable to sports betting.

Furthermore, with almost no sports to wager on and the future somewhat unclear, the Office of the D.C. Chief Financial Officer removed $1.4 million in projected tax revenue to be collected in 2020 from privately operated sportsbooks and lowered the projected fiscal 2021 tax collection from $1.9 million to $942,000.

"Rollout of the retail network component of GambetDC, which was initially slated for this fall, has been pushed to summer of 2021. The pandemic has presented physical, operational and some personal challenges upon the lottery and upon our small business retailer partners across the city," Bresnahan said at the June 3 oversight hearing. "We have worked these past few months to keep our core functions and services safely operating, while continuing to carry out our mission of generating revenue for the District's General Fund."

Before the pandemic hit, the D.C. Lottery had hoped to have retail sportsbooks up and running for the 2020 football season — assuming it happens.

As of June 5, seven sportsbook applications have been submitted in the operator and supplier categories, five of which are under review. Handle19, the sportsbook operation started by serial entrepreneur Shane August, is the only Class B operator to apply, with American Wagering Inc. being the only Class A application — for a facility to be located at Monumental Sports and Entertainment's Capital One Arena. Class B operators are bars and restaurants that sit outside of a two-block radius of Capital One Arena, Audi Field, Nationals Park and the Entertainment and Sports Arena at St. Elizabeths — all four of which are the only designated Class A operators in the city.

The D.C. Lottery had originally expected to see 20 private operator license applications at this point, per previous oversight testimony. Bresnahan said the pandemic has prevented field technicians from betting firms from visiting D.C.'s potential sportsbook locations and created supply chain issues in receiving necessary equipment from overseas manufacturers to be installed in bars and other potential operators.

The D.C. Lottery had initiated a "soft launch" May 28 of the Intralot-created GambetDC, which was originally slated to go live in the fall of 2019. As of June 3, per the agency, 640 accounts were created and 150 deposits were made to accounts. To that point, a total of $11,295 has been wagered on soccer, mixed martial arts, darts and football futures.

"We plan to deploy the iOS and Android apps in the coming weeks after incorporating more feedback from the inaugural players as well as refining geolocation buffer zones and corresponding messaging based on increased user data provided by our third-party technology provider," Bresnahan said. "A full-scale advertising and marketing campaign promoting GambetDC will launch as soon as there is a more robust schedule of major sporting events."