OTB operator Sportech looks to join gambling deal
After 11 years operating Connecticut’s off-track-betting outlets, Sportech has been on the outside looking in at the highstakes negotiations over the future of sports betting and online-casino gambling between the Lamont administration and the two tribal nations that run the casinos.
“We’re not done,” an exasperated Sportech President Ted Taylor of Milford said Friday. “We’ve got to fight. Ultimately we believe we have
certain rights and we deserve a seat at the table. We have employees, investments and standing. We want to survive and thrive.”
The long-stalled negotiations on the lucrative next generation of gambling experiences seem close to a conclusion after a tentative deal between the state, the Mohegan Tribal Nation and the CT Lottery Corp. A group of eastern Connecticut senators and state representatives reminded Gov. Ned Lamont that the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation must be part of any deal that would decide the future sports and online casino gaming.
The Mashantucket Pequots, owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino, said as much, and top aides to Gov. Ned Lamont agreed. But where does that leave Sportech?
As the state’s sole parimutuel operator, the company, with its regional headquarters in New Haven, has 11 locations around the state — down from 16 before the pandemic — with licenses for a total of 24. Off-track betting dates back to 1976, but the current tradition of betting locations goes back nearly 30 years, when there were still live jai alai matches and dog racing here.
Sportech locations include Bobby V’s sports bars in Stamford and near Bradley Airport, as well as Winners at Sports Haven Bar & Grill in New Haven. People who wager there are limited to outof-state horse and dog races, as well as Florida jai-alai.
Under the tentative deal, which Foxwoods has yet to join, the CT Lottery would have the right to conduct sports betting online and could operate 15 locations for sports betting — perhaps in a license agreement with Sportech at the OTB locations.
“We don’t quite know what it says,” Taylor said Friday. “Will the lottery have brick-and-mortar locations? We’re kind of gathering our horses right now and working out our next steps. We’ve never deviated from what we’ve said from the start. Fortunately there are conversations happening now. We have very close relationships with many legislators. We also know some legislators don’t share the same interests as us.”
In 2019, off-track gamblers wagered $141.4 million, with $3 million going to the state’s General Fund, according to the state Department of Consumer Protection.
Meanwhile, many state residents, especially the younger generation of computer-savvy gamblers, can use easy-to-obtain computer apps and place illegal bets on sports, losing potential state revenue while the sports and online-casino issues have stagnated in the first two years of the Lamont administration.
Another arm of Sportech supplies technology to the pare-mutuel industry, operating in 38 countries and handling $12 billion a year in wagers. That makes the company well suited for online gaming in its U.S. headquarters state, Sportech argues — but that was not in the tentative deal Lamont announced Tuesday.
Sportech suggested legal action as a possible avenue to protect its interests.
“Obviously, we have a compact with the tribal nations and that compact dictates any expansion of gaming in the state of Connecticut,” said Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff who has been leading the governor’s negotiating team. “So any conversations have to first start with them.”
Mounds told reporters Thursday that in the end, Lamont hopes to include the Mashantucket Pequots, whose Foxwoods Resort & Casino is the state’s oldest.
“There is a role in which Sportech can be able to play with the CT Lottery Corp.,” Mounds said. “So it’s not a matter of keeping them out of negotiations. Here’s the thing; a lot of people would like to be a part of those discussions, but you have to start discussions with the very parties that we need to allow us to have those discussions, and those were the tribal nations.”
By Friday, Sportech had finally connected with the Lamont team, Max Reiss, Lamont’s communications director, confirmed. “However, given their public comments on potential litigation, the conversations remain preliminary.”
Taylor described the potential profit margin from sports betting as small, but with an infrastructure in place, it makes sense for Sportech to have a seat at the gaming table. “It’s something we’re entitled to, in a fair market,” he said.