How Will FanDuel & Draft Kings Withdrawal from Nevada Sportsbooks Impact Poker?

The withdrawal of FanDuel and Draft Kings from the sportsbook licencees list in Nevada this week shocked many. With two of the United States’ largest sportsbook vendors pulling out of the gambling capital of the world, how will this impact poker, Nevada’s cherished curate’s egg? We’ve looked at the announcement through the lens of poker players, operators and casinos.

Two Sportsbook Giants Pull Out

On Wednesday, it was confirmed that both FanDuel and Draft Kings would be pulling out of the Las Vegas sportsbook betting markets, a move that shocked many independent observers. Gaming regulators accepted the departures of the two brands, meaning there will be no imminent change to regulations in Nevada. Both FanDuel’s parent company’s withdrawal and Draft Kings’s prospective removal from the local licencees has been accepted by the powers that be in the Silver State.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mike Dreitzer, announced the withdrawal of the two companies, saying, “Flutter Entertainment/FanDuel and DraftKings intend to engage in unlawful activities related to sports event contracts.”

This clearly riled both companies involved in the stand-off, with FanDuel responding 24 hours later.

“FanDuel has built our business on operating within clear regulatory frameworks and maintaining strong partnerships with state gaming regulators across the 24-plus jurisdictions where we hold licenses,” a spokesperson said. “We value those relationships and the collaborative approach to state gambling regulation,” the statement said. “While we are enthusiastic about expanding FanDuel’s presence in Nevada, our views of the current opportunity for prediction markets outside of regulated states are unfortunately in direct opposition to Nevada’s priorities for its licensed operators. As a result, we are making the difficult decision to voluntarily surrender our license. We look forward to resuming our Nevada efforts in the future as circumstances allow.”

Flutter the Biggest Players in Stand-Off

The umbrella company that owns FanDuel, Flutter, are the owners of PokerStars, which if it isn’t the world’s biggest poker operator, is still a respectably close second to GGPoker.

Flutter’s abandonment of Vegas as a sportsbetting market comes on the back of an ongoing court battle between the federally regulated prediction markets and U.S. states that provide traditional sportsbetting wagering. The notion that prediction markets are not traditional sportsbetting is the marginal call or fold that is being hotly debated.

Prediction markets provide binary betting opportunities to take yes or no bets on the future outcomes of sports events, but state regulators believe this is still a sports bet and are trying to block the predictions markets as a result. The timing could hardly be worse for Flutter, who announced a FanDuel Predicts app that will be launched in December.

“[The app] provides access to sports event contracts across baseball, basketball, football and hockey,” it said. “In states where online sports betting is not yet legal, customers who are not on tribal lands will be able to trade event contracts on the outcome of sporting events. As new states legalize online sports betting, FanDuel will cease offering sports event contracts in those states.”

The recent NAPT Las Vegas final table highlights the resurgent importance of poker to Sin City’s gambling markets.

How the Announcement Could Affect Poker

With Flutter just as deeply invested in poker as ever - at least financially - the impact on poker could go several ways. In casinos, not having the ability to bet on sports is far from a key indicator on either attendances or profits. Table games have provided and likely always will provide the most sizable income and profit for bricks and mortar gambling properties. Poker, as a skill-based game, makes considerably less per capita but is seen as a loss-leader.

Customers who want to sports bet are hardly likely to play their poker across the stateline if they’re used to playing it in the many venues in Las Vegas such as The Horseshoe, Paris Casino or The Wynn Las Vegas. Casinos are unlikely to notice a huge drop off in either revenue or footfall, while the opportunities for players are uncapped, with this case not directly impacting on poker.

For operators, however, this may well lead them away from sportsbetting, with the predictions markets a huge point of access for many in America. U.S. sportsbetting has been a fractious field in recent years and promoters who have poker to draw on may well double down on their investments in the game, meaning more events at live festivals and possibly bigger field end-of-month leaderboard rewards in casinos in Sin City.

Paul Seaton, an esteemed figure in the poker community with over ten years of experience, has provided live coverage from renowned poker tournaments like the World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, and World Poker Tour. His involvement goes beyond observation; he has served as the Editor of BLUFF Europe Magazine and Head of Media for partypoker.