California’s last attempt at legalizing sports betting was an embarrassing failure at the ballot box, and it’s anyone’s guess when the state will try again. That 2022 disaster saw commercial giants DraftKings and FanDuel attempt to push through a sports betting referendum in the most populous state in the country without the support of gaming tribes in the state, who hold a monopoly on most forms of gambling.
Rick Allec, CEO of OddsLogic, is one industry expert who still sees a path to legal sports betting apps in California, but his remedy is compromise, he told PlayCA. He also has a simple explanation as to why the 2022 ballot proposals were rejected by voters: the commercial operators failed to anticipate how much political sway the tribes wield.
OddsLogic is a sports betting odds provider for US operators.
A California native, Allec has been in the gaming industry for more than two decades, and he’s seen countless efforts over the years to legalize new forms of gaming in one of the world’s largest economic markets.
In a recent interview with PlayCA, Allec said he has a clear view of the issues that serve as obstacles to a future California sports betting market.
“I do think that they underestimated the power that the [California] tribes had [in the state] … and they thought they could get legal books… DraftKings and FanDuel tried to go directly head-to-head with them.”
The failed sportsbook referendum of 2022
The two ballot proposals in 2022 would have established different ways to make sportsbooks legal: one permitting commercial operators; the other granting exclusive rights to California tribes. Allec noted:
“The tribes have a very strong compact and so they have strong control over over gaming. They happen to fall a little bit into the category of how the operators in Nevada feel: nervous about pure online sports betting.”
In Nevada, operators offer sports betting apps, but consumers have to go down to the casino to find an app. That type of model could be a compromise, Allec points out.
“In the state where where one doesn’t recognize the power of the compact … they want to [establish] a deal directly with DraftKings and FanDuel and let them get in there and then, then they go up. It ends up getting split.”
Such a situation could require collaboration between the commercial sportsbooks and the tribes, which could be granted the licenses from the state, Allec suggests.
FanDuel has made an effort to work with California tribes on legislation to bring sports betting apps to the state. The earliest FanDuel seems to think it would be possible is 2026, when the state could revisit the ballot proposal process. More than 50 percent of the votes must be affirmative to pass the initiative, which can then become law or alter the state constitution to allow for a law to be implemented.
