FanDuel Acknowledges Mistakes to California Tribes
FanDuel President Apologizes At Conference
FanDuel — and other major online sports betting operators — have been strongly pushing for California, the most populous state in the United States, to legalize sports betting for a long time now.
It’s a complicated issue in such a large state and, in its ardent efforts to open up the lucrative California market, FanDuel has been accused of not involving powerful state Native American tribes in the process. That led to FanDuel’s acknowledgment of California tribes at the Western Indian Gaming Conference on Wednesday.
At the conference in Los Angeles, FanDuel president Christian Genetski essentially apologized for FanDuel’s support of an online sports betting ballot initiative in California in 2022, which the tribes unanimously opposed (and ended up losing).
Native American tribes have a huge gaming presence in the state, operating large casino resorts like the Pechanga Resort-Casino in Temecula. So, the legalization of sports betting apps could potentially threaten their market share.
That history led to some awkward interactions between California Nations Indian Gaming Association chair James Siva and Genetski as the pair acknowledged how the tribes and FanDuel were opposed regarding Proposition 27.
The tribes have pushed for only in-person retail sports betting — like when you go to the sportsbook at a casino — to be legalized, while FanDuel and other operators have, of course, supported initiatives legalizing online-only sports betting. So far, that gap has been too wide to bridge, but Wednesday’s conference may have been a step toward improving the tribe-operator relationship.
Can The Two Sides Reconcile Their Differences?
FanDuel’s acknowledgment to California tribes this week by its president that the operator did not handle things the right way when it supported the ballot initiative opposed by the tribes is a good first time in repairing the relationship between the two sides.
But, can tribes and operators really work toward a common goal when their current stance is so different? It will not be easy.
Genetski admitted that FanDuel should have made more of an attempt to work with the tribes in 2022 instead of just going along with the other major betting operators that supported the online-only sports betting initiative.
In California, the tribes hold a lot of economic and political sway in addition to controlling the lion’s share of the overall gambling space. That means any effort to legalize online sports betting likely needs at least some tribal support if it is going to be passed through legislative means or ballot initiatives.
A bonus for betting would be if the operators and tribes could agree on some kind of joint legalization that includes online betting (on apps and such) and in-person retail betting (in casinos operated by the tribes).
Neither side, at least right now, wants to budge on the issue in either direction because that would result in increased competition for their own sports betting businesses. The question is whether the sides want this issue to continue to drag out or if, at some point, they’ll realize that it’s better to at least open up California to some sports betting even if the system isn’t perfect from the get-go.
Tribes And Operators Have Partnered Before
While California is unique among all U.S. states in terms of its large amount of federally recognized tribes (110 overall with 60 involved in some sort of gaming) as well as its population.
Other states have seen fruitful partnerships between tribes and major online sports betting operators — even without the kind of FanDuel’s acknowledgment to California tribes that was needed here.
In Connecticut, DraftKings is partnered with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation for retail and online sports betting, while FanDuel is partnered with the Mohegan Tribe. It works well there, yet Connecticut doesn’t hold a candle to California regarding population, tribal influence, or potential revenue.
It’s a bit trickier in the Golden State especially because there have been proposals and initiatives going back and forth on sports betting legalization for years at this point since the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) was repealed.
The upshot of all of this is that Californians are not any closer to being able to bet on sports online as of right now. However, the fact that there is a more open dialogue between an operator like FanDuel and a prominent tribal group like the California Nations Indian Gaming Association.
Both sides would benefit from sports betting legalization, so there is a mutual incentive to get something done. The sticking point is, essentially, how to divvy up the proceeds. Obviously, that’s a huge question that needs to be solved.
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