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SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 Where is California at with sports betting?
00:05 I'm seeing the sports betting operators and
00:07 comments coming out of California, Mike.
00:09 They are frustrated.
00:11 FanDuel now speaking out.
00:13 I mean, look, they all want, obviously they all want sports
00:15 betting to happen in California.
00:17 It keeps getting voted down.
00:19 I know the tribes are involved as well.
00:21 It feels like my state here, Mike, in the state of Florida.
00:23 So inevitably, here's what I think, Mike.
00:25 I think this is gonna get done, but
00:26 it just may not be anytime soon.
00:28 They'll figure it out one day.
00:30 >> Agreed, Craig.
00:32 And I think it was just eye opening, the way FanDuel went about this and
00:35 has gone about this, hiring executives with tribal experience.
00:39 A lot of links to San Manuel with Frank Sizemore and
00:43 Ricky Tannenbaum coming aboard as executives at FanDuel.
00:46 Really trying to mend that relationship that was a mess since Prop 26 and
00:50 Prop 27 failed miserably in 2022.
00:54 The tribes, again, came out at this conference that I was at and said,
00:57 we're gonna be the ones who decide when California sports betting happens legally.
01:02 You're gonna be our tech providers, not the operators.
01:05 Your brands aren't gonna be front and center.
01:07 That's really the question, right?
01:08 Everybody's kind of playing nice right now.
01:10 And FanDuel is the one that's at the forefront of learning from its mistakes
01:14 and saying we can't operate the way that we thought we could where we could just
01:17 come in the marketplace, spend a ton of money to try to get voters on our side.
01:22 That didn't work.
01:23 I mean, the prop failed.
01:24 I think it only got 18% of the vote, which is incredible.
01:26 Even the polling that they did showed they could get more.
01:30 So they've got a lot of work to do.
01:32 Everybody's gotta get on the same page.
01:33 First, the tribes, 110 of them have to figure out how they wanna share that
01:36 revenue, and then again, with FanDuel and DraftKings wanting to come in the
01:39 marketplace, can they get their brands out in front?
01:42 They're gonna want their brands in there.
01:44 Is there gonna be a monetary figure where the tribes acquiesce?
01:46 Because they came out, James Sieve of CNIGA, the chairman there, and said,
01:51 you're gonna be the B2B operators, basically.
01:53 You're not gonna have the B2C opportunities you have in other
01:56 jurisdictions.
01:56 So we'll see, the proof is in the pudding, right?
02:00 That's what Jacob Mejia said, one of the Pechanga tribal members said.
02:04 They've said all the right things right now, but when FanDuel and
02:06 DraftKings ask for their brands, and potentially the tribes say no,
02:10 are they gonna be okay with taking some sort of revenue split and
02:12 not having their brands front and center?
02:14 That's a question that remains to be seen, but Victor Rocha of the Indian Gaming
02:19 Association, their conference chair, he suggested 2026 retail and maybe 2028 mobile.
02:25 Now, obviously, that's a long time away, but there's a lot of work to be done here.
02:28 And I think it was really positive that FanDuel came out in front.
02:33 Christian Janeski, their president, had taken a ribbing at an earlier tribal
02:36 conference.
02:37 Amy Howe kind of took her lumps a little bit.
02:39 But they're saying all the right things, so we'll see when they actually have to
02:43 try to hammer something out, whether that relationship can be mended in time,
02:48 or whether it becomes contentious again.
02:50 But right now, everybody's playing nice, and we'll see where we go from here.
02:53 [MUSIC]