RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE
A logo for Rush Street Interactive, the CT Lottery’s new sports betting partner.
CT Lottery introduced its sports betting partners Thursday, but don’t bet on Connecticut being ready to take wagers for the opening of the NFL season on Sept. 9.
Rush Street Interactive will run the sports book, guaranteeing a minimum of $170 million for the lottery over 10 years, and Sportech will be licensed to take sports wagers at 10 off-track betting locations, including its Bobby V’s sports bars in Stamford and Windsor Locks.
Rush Street has a record of being first to the market where sports betting has been legalized, but Connecticut’s regulatory structure is a work in progress, and federal approval is required for the sports books to open at the two tribal casinos, Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun.
Legislation signed on May 27 by Gov. Ned Lamont granted master licenses for sports betting to the lottery and the casino owners, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations. The tribes also were authorized to offer online casino gambling.
“There are so many required steps that are progressing simultaneously,” said Greg Smith, the president of the Connecticut Lottery Corporation. “In terms of getting to a launch date for sports wagering in Connecticut, it’s actually not possible to say when that will be completed.”
Amendments to the state’s gambling compacts with the two federally recognized tribes were submitted on July 26 to the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Department of Interior, starting a maximum 45-day review period with a deadline of around Sept. 9.
State regulations have been drafted by the Department of Consumer Protection, but they have yet to be submitted to the legislature’s Regulation Review Committee for its next meeting on Aug. 31.
“We are confident we will be taking sports bets this NFL season, in the early part of it. It’s just a matter of what exactly that date will be is still a bit open to consideration,” said Rob Simmelkjaer, chair of the board of the quasi-public Connecticut Lottery Corporation.
The partnership with Sportech was expected for two reasons: The company has an established network of retail outlets for off-track betting, speeding a brick-and-mortar launch expected to come quicker than the online version; and the British company had made noises about possible litigation about being denied a master license.
“We started constructive talks quite quickly,” said Ted Taylor, the president of Sportech. “We’re satisfied with a mutually acceptable arrangement.”
By picking Rush Street Interactive, the lottery is partnering with a company that has quickly grabbed market share in retail and online sports betting, a business that has exploded since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal restrictions in 2018.
Simmelkjaer said RSI has been financially successful in other places, including New York and New Jersey, while offering protections against problem gambling.
“RSI takes a number of approaches to promote responsible gaming, including deposit limits, self-exclusion controls and regular promotion of responsible gaming tools and resources,” he said.
Regulations are expected to establish minimum standards for responsible gambling, or “RG” in trade jargon.
“The regulations are in draft form. And we’ve seen that there are some limitations established by mostly requirements for establishing RG controls,” Smith said. “And then what we do know that each system will include is the abilities for players to accentuate those controls so whatever we set them at they can take them to a stronger level.”
The law legalizing sports betting requires a sports betting venue in Hartford, where city officials have been pushing for a portion of the XL Center as a locale, another in Bridgeport. For the time being, at least, those are outside CT Lottery’s deal with Sportech.
The partnerships were announced on a Zoom video call following a closed-door briefing to the lottery board.
Rush Street is a publicly traded company whose stock price jumped 16.2% on Monday, evidently spurred by speculation it could become a takeover target as the market expands.
DraftKings, a competitor that will run sports betting for Foxwoods, acquired Golden Nugget Online, prompting speculation of industry consolidation, according to the stock tip sheet, Motley Fool.
Mohegan Sun has contracted with FanDuel for its sports book.
The NFL season opens on Sept. 9 with a Thursday night game between the Dallas Cowboys and Super Bowl winner the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by the 44-year-old Tom Brady.
