FanDuel bid proposes New York mobile betting tax rate of 50%
FanDuel claims that only its bid has the scale and advantages to grow New York’s mobile sports betting market at such as high tax rate.
US.- The New York Gaming Commission (NYGC) has published details of the six applications for its two mobile sports betting licences. The most notable detail is that the bid led by Flutter’s FanDuel, one of the largest sports betting operators in the US, is proposing that New York tax the newly regulated market at 50 per cent.
FanDuel’s bid also involves heavyweights Bally’s, BetMGM and DraftKings. They were initially listed as operators, and FanDuel as the platform provider, but details of the bid clarify that each operator will use its own platform.
Proposing a 50 per cent tax rate, they argue that only operators of their size could make that viable. They expect New York to see more than $1.3bn in gross gaming revenue by the close of the third year of legal mobile betting, beating the numbers seen in any other state. That would mean tax revenue of $650m for the state in the third year.
The bid says: “No other group of operators has the requisite scale and unique advantages to grow the market at this tax rate. A higher tax rate or accepting additional operators will inhibit the market by creating economically unfeasible conditions.”
Online betting in New York was officially approved in April. The NYGC will allow two operators to debut online with ten-year licences. It’s expected to choose its final candidates by the end of the year.
Other applicants are: Flutter’s Fox Bet; Kambi with Caesars, PointsBet, Wynn Interactive, Genting’s Resorts World brand and Rush Street Interactive; Oneida Indian Nation and the St. Regis Mohawk Nation; Kambi with Barstool Sports and Fanatics, which has named Jay-Z as vice chair.
Each of the operators chosen must offer at least four skins, but players will only be allowed to have one account per platform. New regulations approved by the NYGC specify that while credit cards will be permitted to fund accounts, players may only deposit up to $2,500 per year using a card.
As for promotions, all details must be sent to the Commission at least 15 days ahead of every promotion’s launch in order to be approved.
NYSGC Executive Director Rob Williams said: “As part of this RFA development, it was necessary to create a draft proposed regulations set to provide insight into the anticipated regulatory environment governing mobile sports wagering.
“As for the pre-proposal rule circulation, we received 94 comments, of which 42 were duplicative, nine simply sought clarification of terms, meaning there were 43 comments seeking change to the pre-proposal document. Following a review, staff accepted 14 comments in full or in part.”
