The D.C. Lottery received a payment of $500,000 from Intralot, GambetDC’s mobile app provider, for the sports betting app’s Super Bowl outage. Lottery Executive Director Frank Suarez shared the news at a D.C. Council meeting last week, and the payment was received by the lottery at the end of March.
GambetDC’s Android app and browser worked during Super Bowl Sunday, but the iOS app failed a few hours before kickoff and didn’t come back online until the following day. The problem stemmed from Intralot’s failure to secure an SSL certification approval from Apple in a timely manner.
Intralot and the D.C. Lottery negotiated a compensation package for the failure in previous weeks, and it ultimately took a little over a month for the sides to come to terms on an agreement.
“We’re very satisfied with the end result,” Suarez said.
The payment from Intralot covers the day’s worth of potential bets lost on Super Bowl Sunday ($65,000), a free-bet promotion offered to calm frustrated users ($6,300), and marketing costs ($428,700) to help repair a damaged reputation.
“You can’t measure reputational damage,” Suarez said. “It’s just not an easy thing for us to put a value to or measure, but we did look at how much we believe we may have lost in player registrations and lifetime value of that and just making sure that we got that back. That’s what the marketing funds are for, to help us drive new player registrations to make up for that.”
The future of GambetDC
Despite well-documented struggles, the District seems content to push forward with GambetDC for the time being. Suarez and the lottery have promised improvements to the app, including upcoming changes to the user interface.
Teests Test, via @GambetDC pic.twitter.com/CkTovnm8BE
— Michael Brice-Saddler (@TheArtist_MBS) April 12, 2022
“The reason I get concerned is because it seems like, since I’ve had oversight, they’ve been discussing revamping the Gambet user interface the entire time,” Kenyan McDuffie, a D.C. Council member, said during the meeting.
GambetDC soon expects to add the ability to cash out bets, which Suarez considers a minor improvement. The user interface “revamp” is expected to include major interface changes, making the app function more like a major national mobile sportsbook app, complete with betting promotions.
“It will look very different than what we have today, but it will seem very natural for folks that have been betting on other apps,” Suarez said.
Between user interface flaws and slashed revenue reports, there’s concern among D.C. Council members (and bettors) that GambetDC isn’t cutting it. The interface changes and upcoming revenue reports are worth monitoring, as it’s possible the council could steer itself away from Intralot and GambetDC. That would be welcome news for bettors in the District, who often prefer using the retail locations at Nationals Park (BetMGM) and Capital One Arena (Caesars).
