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Online sports gambling is back in D.C. after one-day pause

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Online sports gambling is back in D.C. after one-day pause

Citywide mobile sports betting returned to D.C. on Wednesday morning, more than 24 hours after FanDuel suspended online operations in the city while it waited for Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to sign the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget, which reauthorized sports betting in the nation’s capital.

Bowser never actually signed the budget, returning it to the D.C. Council without her signature or veto and expressing concerns about certain tax and spending measures. But the move in essence allowed sports gambling to resume in the city.

FanDuel previously had been the lone company to offer citywide mobile sports betting in D.C., but a new law written into the city’s 2025 budget has opened the door to up to six other companies. On Wednesday morning, Caesars began taking online bets throughout the city (mobile betting on that platform previously had been limited to gamblers who were within a two-block radius of Capital One Arena). BetMGM says it will begin citywide mobile operations at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday.

The final sports-betting licenses seem likely to be filled soon. DraftKings — which is available in 25 states and led the nation in sports-gambling market share for the second quarter of this year — said June 25 that it was looking forward “to the potential opportunity to introduce D.C. sports fans to our mobile sportsbook product.”

On Tuesday, FanDuel posted a message on its app saying that it had paused online sports betting in D.C. The company told The Washington Post in a statement that it was waiting for “final approval of the FY2025 DC Budget,” which included a bill to expand the city’s sports betting offerings. Intralot, the Greek company that operates the city’s lottery, previously had subcontracted with FanDuel to be D.C.’s lone citywide sports betting option after the failure of GambetDC, the city’s original betting platform.

Moving forward, gambling companies that operate in D.C. will pay the city 20 percent of their gaming revenue, plus the costs of acquiring a license. Under the terms of its former agreement with Intralot, which has expired, FanDuel paid the city 40 percent of its gaming revenue as the lone company offering citywide mobile sports betting in D.C.

Plagued by technical glitches and lousy odds, GambetDC brought in only $4.3 million over a four-year period, well short of the $84 million that was projected. In April, Intralot announced it was shuttering GambetDC and turning the city’s mobile sports-gambling operation over to FanDuel, which also operates a brick-and-mortar sportsbook at Audi Field. In its first 30 days alone, FanDuel brought in $1.9 million to the city.

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