Oregon Could Expand Sports Betting

Oregon was actually one of the states that were grandfathered into the sports betting industry, and the state was free to offer sports betting even when there was a federal ban. That wasn’t the case in Oregon though as the state didn’t first offer sports betting until 2019.

There is currently just one sports betting option in Oregon, and it’s DraftKings that has the monopoly in the state. DraftKings agreed to a 50% revenue share when it went live in Oregon, and this is one of the leaders of sports betting throughout the U.S.

Sport Oregon is a group that is seeking to expand on the current sports betting options in the state. This group is backed by executives from Nike and the Portland Trail Blazers, two of the giants in this state.

Last week the Oregon Joint Interim Committee on Gambling Regulation met, and Sport Oregon made a sales pitch to that group. Nathan Nayman is one of the leaders of Sport Oregon and he spoke about the problem with one company having a monopoly over the industry.

Nayman and the Sport Oregon group estimate that sports betting revenue could jump all the way up nearly $300 million if the DraftKings monopoly was taken away. The most recent 12-month revenue totals have the ing in a little over $32 million.

A Look At Other States

The Oregon sports betting industry was one of the first to launch after the fall of PASPA, and there wasn’t a ton of information to look at. Now that there are over 30 states with a legal sports betting industry established, Sport Oregon wants the state to look elsewhere for guidance.

Arizona and Ohio were two states that were mentioned as examples, and Oregon could eventually model their markets after these two states. One major rule change would also help as betting on college sports is currently banned in the state.

Adding more sports betting operators would force DraftKings to offer more competitive betting odds and lines, and there would be more promotions available as well. DraftKings is not likely going to be willing to give up this monopoly, but that could happen if the 50% revenue sharing goes away.

A Rocky Start in Oregon

Part of the reason that the Oregon sports betting scene is still small is that things got off to such a rocky start. When the Oregon Lottery partnered with SBTech to launch its own mobile app, this was expected to be a good move.

The Scoreboard app was the product that was available in Oregon, and it was immediately criticized by sports bettors. The odds and betting lines were way off compared to what was posted in other states, and there weren’t any major bonuses or promotions to choose from.

Moving to the DraftKings app has turned things around in Oregon, but this is still a market that has underachieved.