Update on Sports Betting Legalization in Key US States
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00:00I do want to get to this because this is the only update we've gotten in weeks, Sam, and
00:07I'm glad that you could bring it to the table here.
00:09You know, here in Florida, the hard rock legalized sports betting, and then we thought that it
00:13was going to be like an influx of states in 2024 to legalize it.
00:16Now we're coming up on Missouri, of course, in November.
00:19No discussion whatsoever about the state of California in a couple of years of getting
00:24closer to legalizing sports betting, but I know that was a hot topic also with G2E.
00:28Did it seem like any progress is being made there?
00:32Yeah, with not many states left to legalize, you're kind of still looking at the same ones
00:36you've been looking at, which is California, Texas, and Florida, the really big markets.
00:41They did touch on California a little bit.
00:43Contessa Brewer of NBC asked Jason Robbins about California.
00:47He said, ultimately, that's going to be left up to the tribes.
00:50DraftKings and FanDuel had tried in the past to sort of circumvent the tribes with the
00:55failed ballot initiative a couple of years ago, but now they've kind of been owning up
00:59to their mistakes, saying we really have to work with tribes to understand what exactly
01:03this has to look like.
01:03It has to be on kind of all their own terms.
01:05DraftKings is taking more of a wait-and-see approach, from what I gather, while FanDuel
01:09is working behind the scenes trying to mend those relationships.
01:13And then on Florida as well, you know, it has the monopoly there with hard rock, but
01:18their CEO did come out, Jim Allen, this week saying that he is open to essentially opening
01:23up the door to other brands like DraftKings and FanDuel to get in the state.
01:27Now, you might wonder why, if you have a monopoly, you would want to allow more competition in,
01:33especially more competition that has done sports betting, quite frankly, a lot better
01:37than hard rock has across the country.
01:39This would essentially be some sort of partnership where they get a percentage of the revenue
01:44for allowing DraftKings and FanDuel into the state.
01:46He said he sees a lot of value in the brands themselves, the customers that they bring,
01:52to essentially grow sports betting in the state where it's just a monopoly right now.
01:56But for the time being, these states are going to kind of be, you know, status quo.
02:01We'll have to wait for the next legislative sessions, but there's no doubt that this will
02:05be what the industry is watching in terms of next states to legalize as we turn to 2025.