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The Oregon Lottery announced Wednesday that DraftKings will become the state’s official sportsbook provider, with the transition to begin next Tuesday.
The state lottery had an existing contract with SBTech to operate its app, and DraftKings acquired SBTech in 2020. Last month, the lottery board approved a temporary order to begin the process of altering the rules to accommodate the branding change. Oregon is the second state where DraftKings will have exclusivity in offering sports wagering — it has operated in a similar fashion in New Hampshire since late December 2019.
“DraftKings is thrilled to embark on this journey with the Oregon Lottery as we build out a coast-to-coast presence with our top-rated online sportsbook for these fans to experience ahead of the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl,” Paul Liberman, the company’s co-founder and president global technology and product, said in a statement. “The Oregon Lottery shares our innovative spirit as one of the most progressive organizations in the real-money gaming sector, and together we look forward to delivering the exceptional online sportsbook products that Oregonians have been anticipating.”
The Oregon Lottery launched sports wagering in October 2019 and has generated close to $53.4 million in tax revenue from $595.1 million worth of wagers in 27 months of operation. It set all-time monthly highs for revenue ($4.4 million) in November and handle ($37.6 million) in October. For the 2021 calendar year, bettors made $331.6 million worth of wagers, with the state posting a 9.2% hold to claim just shy of $30.4 million in tax revenue.
As a point of comparison, New Hampshire has generated $910 million in handle and $166 million in revenue since launching days before the calendar flipped to 2020. Though Oregon has more than double New Hampshire’s population, the Granite State does get a notable amount of handle from residents of neighboring Massachusetts, which does not have sports wagering.
Of the four states bordering Oregon, Washington and Nevada have sports betting, but it is only on a tribal basis in Washington, with mobile wagering limited to the casino properties.
So what will change under DraftKings?
DECEMBER #SportsBetting numbers for #Oregon via @oregon_lottery:
Number of Bets: 9,843,157
Avg. Bet: $33.69
Live Bets/WR: 3,344,399/7.86%
Pre-game Bets/WR: 6,498,758/10.43%
Live Han/Rev: $164,873,850/$12,965,577
PG Han/Rev: $167,175,612/$17,432,4246/x #GamblingTwitter
— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) January 4, 2022
The transfer from the Scoreboard app to the DraftKings app will begin Jan. 18, though bettors will still have access to transaction histories, account information, and the withdraw function for six months post-transition. Additionally, all open wagers made in the Scoreboard app will remain active until settled. Bettors will have access to DraftKings’ responsible gaming tools, which include deposit limits, cool-down periods, and other self-restrictions.
“We’re excited about the improved experience for our players — including the ability to make same-game parlay bets. DraftKings is a premier provider in the U.S.,” said Barry Pack, director of the Oregon Lottery. “We see benefits for Lottery too, as the shift to DraftKings means fewer third-party service providers and a simpler financial structure for player accounts.”
The biggest change in terms of offerings is the availability of DraftKings’ “Same Game Parlay” in addition to what the Oregon Lottery labels “Combo and Systems.” Those wagers accounted for 24.3% of the handle and 38.9% of the revenue in 2021 while generating a 14.67% hold.
One other area where DraftKings could provide a notable boost to increase handle is via promotional offers. The Scoreboard app was somewhat hit and miss in this area, generating just $2.1 million in all-time handle from those offers.
Since Oregon does not permit wagering on college events, the bulk of its sports event handle comes from the NBA, NFL, MLB, and soccer. It does, however, also offer a large variety of international sports, including snooker, darts, and sumo wrestling.
