The DC Lottery says the launch of its citywide app for sports betting will be delayed once again.

The DC Lottery sports betting app and website (GambetDC) is the only legal provider of citywide online betting. Each of the four stadiums detailed above may also offer mobile wagering, but only for. On Tuesday, December 18, 2018, the District of Columbia City Council voted 11-2 in favor of the Sports Wagering Lottery Amendment Act of 2018. Before the legislation becomes law, it must be signed first by Mayor Bowser and then approved by the Congress. In addition, the Lottery must develop the requirements and processes for the licensing, regulating and operating sports. DC Daily Fantasy Sports As a separate form of sports entertainment from sports betting, Daily Fantasy Sports, or DFS, has been playable in the Nation’s Capital for some time now. Popular brands you are.

The app initially was slated to be up and running this fall and had already been pushed back until January. Now, a Lottery spokesperson says the sports betting app will launch sometime during the first quarter of 2020.

Development of that app was halted for three weeks while the District's contract with the company developing it was challenged in court. A judge issued a temporary restraining order in September, which was later lifted in mid-October. The lawsuit is still pending.

'Hopefully, the delay of the District-wide app won't translate to a further delay for us,' said gaming attorney Jeff Ifrah.

Ifrah organized Bet DC, a group of at least 28 restaurants and bars working together to develop a sports betting app to operate within their small business locations.

Sports Gambling Restriction Zones, Update

This interactive map shows the original 2-block zones shaded in pink. The blue outlines illustrate the updated, expanded boundaries of the two-block zones.
The restriction zones are for sports betting apps for Capital One Arena, Nats Park, Audi Field and the Entertainment and Sports Arena. The District app will not work in those locations. Other businesses within those zones cannot have their own sports betting app.

Source: Open Data DC
Credit: Anisa Holmes/NBC Washington

He was disappointed to see that the District has further restricted which small businesses can participate in sports betting with the expansion of four exclusivity zones. The District released updated maps designating those zones this week.

The zones are within a two-block radius of D.C.'s major sports venues where only the app affiliated with that venue will be permitted. The expanded zones block at least a half-dozen additional small businesses from participating in sports betting, when compared with the original zones released in August.

'We're extremely disappointed at this development,” Ifrah said. “We were expecting a small business-friendly amendment, not one that makes the situation worse.”

Ifrah represents two restaurants that appealed the original drawing of the zones, disputing the District's definition of two blocks. The owner of Willie's Brew and Cue told the News4 I-Team his business is three blocks from Nationals Park and he should not have been included in the zone and excluded from profiting from sports betting. Ifrah says DC Lottery has not formally ruled on the appeals, however the updated maps expanded the zones rather than reducing them.

A DC Lottery spokesperson told the I-Team the zones were 'final' back in August. That spokesperson now refers to them as 'draft maps,' saying 'slight revisions' were made for 'clarity purposes.'

On Dec. 3, D.C.'s four professional sports venues and small businesses interested in offering sports betting will be able to apply for Class A and Class B licenses.

'We're very excited to get started,' Ifrah said. 'We've been waiting for two months for these applications to become available. We trust that the lottery will be fair and transparent in awarding licenses.'

The DC Lottery said it expects to take 30-45 days to review the applications and begin approving licenses.

'Hopefully, they'll approve them quickly,' Ifrah said. 'We want to get going right away. We still hope to be live by the Super Bowl, and this gives us a shot.'

The bettors of Washington DC have already shown they will sacrifice some convenience rather than plan on a less-than ideal sportsbook app.

But the competition between William Hill and the DC Lottery’s Intralot-powered GambetDC looks set to become even more one-sided.

William Hill today announced it has added mobile betting to its existing retail presence inside the Capital One Arena.

Now bettors can place wagers through the app as long as they are within a two-block radius of the arena.

Of course, it’s not true mobile betting thanks the the geographical restriction. But it will let bettors avoid queues and peruse a wider range of markets.

One-sided fight between William Hill and Gambet DC

Recall, William Hill’s temporary sportsbook at the Capital One Arena took $13.7 million in bets in November.

That’s 3.5 times higher than the $3.9 million in handle GambetDC generated from DC sports betting that month. Gambet DC typically charges -118 on straight bets compared to -110 at Will Hill.

And the disparity will only widen with the William Hill app available. Will Hill also pointed out the temporary retail sportsbook will be replaced with a full-service option in “early 2021”.

Hill’s is the exclusive sports betting partner of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, and Washington Mystics, who play at the Capital One Arena.

How does pricing impact sports betting market share?

The uneven contest between William Hill and Gambet DC also highlights the role of pricing in the US sports betting market.

Back in August, Entain CEO Shay Segev caused a stir by suggesting price might not be that important in the US.

Segev said: “We don’t see the US becoming some kind of price war. You want to aim for recreational players. There’s only a small group of players actively looking for best price.”

Segev of course has decades of experience in betting markets around the globe, where price simply isn’t as important as influential bettors would have you believe.

Would that be any different in the US?

“US betting twitter cares about price but that customer cohort is probably 0.1% of any book,” said Chalkline Sports co-founder Daniel Kustelski.

“If price always mattered people would only buy at Walmart and eat no-name brand corn flakes.”

Price as a hygiene factor

Essentially, for a small percentage of players, price is everything. But for the majority, it is more of a hygiene factor. In other words is, as long as the pricing is decent (say -110 on either side of an NFL game) then most people are happy.

However, Gambet DC and other Intralot-run books fail that hygiene factor test. But it doesn’t mean that going to -105 each side will suddenly double your market share.

In fact, that often attracts the shaper (unprofitable) customers while many of the recreational players don’t even notice.

Dc Lottery Sports Betting Apps

Instead, odds boosts have proven to be a much more effective way of using price to attract and keep customers. These boosts are more akin to a supermarket reduction with players feeling they are getting a bargain.