DraftKings and FanDuel Ready to Challenge Seminole Tribe in Florida

Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new compact agreement with leadership from the Seminole Indian Tribe. As part of the new compact, the Tribe would have exclusive rights to provide sports betting to Florida residents in exchange for a piece of the action going to the state. While there is concern that this part of the deal will stand up to scrutiny in a courtroom, a couple of the country's top online sports betting operators are looking to upset the apple cart.

When news came out that certain online bookmakers could be denied the ability to offer sports betting services to Florida residents, it didn't sit well with management at DraftKings and FanDuel. In response, both of the nation's leading bookmakers are supporting a new initiative that would allow online bookmakers to have access to Florida sports bettors.

The new initiative is being put forth by Florida Education Champions, a newly formed political action group, which has been getting financial support from top online bookmakers like BetMGM and the aforementioned DraftKings and FanDuel. The group is pushing to have this new initiative passed through all the necessary red tape in order to make it onto the ballot for the 2022 election cycle.

The proposal sets forth the process by which certain online sports betting operators could bypass a part of the new Seminole Indian Tribe compact. In that compact agreement, all online sports betting would have to go through servers that are controlled by tribal interests on tribal land. That would effectively give control to the Tribe as to whether or not to allow sports gambling or which online bookmaker would get exclusive rights as a provider.

Referred to as the "Sport and Event Betting ballot initiative", supporters of this initiative are looking to make sure Florida sports bettors will be able to wager within a competitive sports betting environment.

According to the initiative, qualified online bookmakers would be required to already be operating in at least 10 states. That would include the likes of BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, and possibly BetRivers.

In a text related to the new initiative, organizers stated: "No sooner than 20 months after the effective date of this amendment, online sports and event betting may be conducted by other entities and organizations if authorized in accordance with general law."

As was indicated above, it is possible that the exclusivity clause in the Seminole compact will get set aside in a courtroom. With that in mind, Governor DeSantis made sure that that section of the compact could easily be carved out of the deal if issues were to arise. That ensures the rest of the compact could still go forward without interference.

As one would imagine, Seminole leadership can be expected to vigorously fight this new initiative. To lead the fight, they have set up a new subsidiary called the Seminole Hard Rock Digital.

According to Gary Bitner, a representative for the Seminole Tribe, "This is a political Hail Mary from out-of-state corporations trying to interfere with the business of the people of Florida."