Discussions earlier this week between California’s tribal leaders and online sportsbook executives were an attempted restart of negotiations to bring mobile sports betting to the Golden State.
Amiable Discourse
The once-icy relationship between national sportsbooks and California’s gaming tribes has thawed significantly after the industry powerhouses, FanDuel and DraftKings, spent $450 million to get sports betting on the ballot, only to have their proposal shot down by an equally robust marketing campaign by the Native American tribes. Just 17.7% of the voters approved of the duopoly’s ballot question.
A panel discussion was held earlier this week at the Indian Gaming Tradeshow and Convention in San Diego, which included the Sports Betting Alliance Tribal Advisory Council — a group from within the Sports Betting Alliance comprised of representatives from four commercial sportsbook operators (FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Fanatics)—and six leaders from among California’s 109 federally recognized tribes.
“The Tribal Advisory Board was formed by the Sports Betting Alliance with a clear purpose: to bring tribes together to learn more about sportsbook operations and to explore how this industry can be shaped to serve tribal interests,” said Daniel Salgado, former tribal chairman of the Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians and a member of the SBA’s advisory group.
Strides have been made, and discussions have taken a much more conciliatory tone, particularly by the mobile sportsbooks that have come to realize that the only way sports betting happens in California is through the good graces of the gaming tribes.
“In California, there is not a chance for sports betting unless the tribes are running it; it can’t happen,” DraftKings CEO Jason Robins told Rocha, who served as the panel moderator. (…) That’s been the thing that we’ve really learned,” Robins continued. “When we first did a ballot initiative in California, we didn’t really understand it was so different. We just thought that if everyone is making money, then it would be all good. But it was totally different in regard to conversations we’ve had here.”
More Work Ahead
The panel discussion essentially reaffirmed that the flow of communication is as good as it has ever been between the two parties, but that sports betting launching in California is likely something that won’t happen until 2029 at the earliest, due to California’s ballot questions every two years.
There is still much work to do as the tribes jealously guard their casino monopoly in the state and do not want anything to compromise that financial windfall. The tribes will be in complete control of sports betting in California if, and when, it occurs.
California is considered the holy grail of all sports betting markets due to its nearly 40 million people, dwarfing New York, currently the top sports betting market with more than double the population. And should iGaming be welcomed by the tribes, it would be a bonanza for both parties.
FanDuel CEO Christian Genetski was among the first C-suite executives to publicly apologize to the tribes after the failed attempt to get sports betting on the ballot without their cooperation.
“I think that there will be an opportunity to make something happen and create something that is generational in California,“ Genetski said Tuesday. ”We know that needs to come from the tribes, and we have said we will be accessible. It starts from tribal ownership and sovereignty. We want to contribute what we can to creating a big pie that we can then share.”
