Now that legal sports betting is underway in the Constitution State, the Connecticut Lottery Corp. plans to expand entertainment venues featuring sports gambling.The lottery is eyeing three possible locations for a venue in Bridgeport that would include food and beverages in addition to gambling, and it’s working to place a facility in Hartford’s XL Center, […]
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Now that legal sports betting is underway in the Constitution State, the Connecticut Lottery Corp. plans to expand entertainment venues featuring sports gambling.
The lottery is eyeing three possible locations for a venue in Bridgeport that would include food and beverages in addition to gambling, and it’s working to place a facility in Hartford’s XL Center, said CT Lottery Chairman Rob Simmelkjaer.
“We think a sportsbook at the XL Center should be very successful,” Simmelkjaer said. “It’s going to have to be a sportsbook that is part of a larger dining and entertainment venue.”
If all goes according to plan, CT Lottery will open the Bridgeport venue in time for next year’s March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, and the XL Center spot by next NFL season, Simmelkjaer said.
All that is pending negotiations with various landlords.
In March Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law the statute legalizing online casino and sports gambling. Since then, Sportech — the U.K.-based gambling company that owns exclusive rights to off-track betting in Connecticut — has started taking sports bets at some of its 10 locations across the state, while Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos started taking bets in person and online earlier this fall.
State lottery and Sportech officials say they see significant growth opportunities as more sports gambling venues debut in Connecticut.
During just the first week of legal sports betting in the state, 1.2 million transactions took place, the Hartford Courant reported.
Investing in CT
Under the law, CT Lottery will open 15 sports betting locations, 10 of which will be at existing off-track betting sites operated by Sportech, including at Bobby V’s in Stamford and Windsor Locks; Winners Sports Haven in New Haven; and seven other Winners off-track betting locations. As per a deal with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes — which operate Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively — no retail sports gambling venues may open within 25 miles of either casino.
As his company in October started taking bets in New Haven, Stamford and Windsor Locks, Sportech President Ted Taylor said employees have been working at fever pitch to install sports gambling terminals at its other seven Winners locations in Hartford, Manchester, Waterbury, Torrington, New Britain, Milford and Norwalk.
In addition to buying 20 new sports betting machines — which cost about $10,000 each — the company had to add electrical capacity and internet infrastructure to support the additional usage volume.
“We put the infrastructure in place in terms of terminals and people and money services in existing locations,” Taylor said. “So people can come to one place now for any of their betting, whether it’s on horses or greyhounds or sports.”
Eleven years ago, Connecticut granted Sportech exclusive rights to off-track pari-mutuel betting in the state. Since then, the company — which employs about 350 people in Connecticut — has mostly run gambling books for horse and greyhound racing out of its Winners off-track betting parlors.
But that business has been on a steady decline in recent years. Sportech’s off-track betting operations saw annual revenues decline from $187.9 million in 2012 to $141.4 million in 2019, state records show. In the 2020 pandemic year, it generated about $101 million in revenue.
Taylor said he’s bullish about sports gambling’s impact on his company’s bottom line.
Imperfect deal
Sportech’s desire for a piece of the sports betting action reached a flashpoint earlier this year when Lamont was negotiating a deal with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, which were vying for exclusive rights over expanded gambling in the state. Taylor originally objected to the deal hashed out by the Lamont administration, casino tribes and CT Lottery, and even raised the possibility of suing the state over the setup.
But Taylor said he ultimately came around. The casinos were given the ability to have in-person and online sports betting and virtual casino games, and the lottery now has access to in-person and online sports betting and virtual lottery games. The lottery is partnering with Sportech to add sports betting to the company’s off-track betting sites.
“We’ve ended up in a slightly less advantageous position, but still fairly positive,” said Taylor, alluding to the fact Sportech can’t offer online sports betting in the state. “It wasn’t the perfect result for us, but we’ve managed to carve out a situation we’re content with.”
Food and entertainment
Taylor said his company is already seeing a lot of activity at Sports Haven and the two Bobby V’s locations, all of which operate as sports-themed bars/restaurants with sports betting options. Bobby V’s in Stamford appears to be drawing a lot of customers from nearby New York, and the one in Windsor Locks is attracting Massachusetts residents, he said.
The other seven Sportech locations that will offer sports gambling don’t have food or beverage service. But that could change depending on how successful its Bobby V’s and Sports Haven locations become, Taylor said.
“As we work out the trends around sports betting, we’ll be looking to extend the offerings … so we can offer food, beverage and entertainment alongside the betting,” Taylor said. “It’s a work in progress.”
Additionally, Taylor said Sportech is in conversations with multiple states about running sports betting books there.
Under state mandate, the CT Lottery must open sports betting entertainment venues — i.e. not simply terminal locations — in Bridgeport and Hartford. CT Lottery will send out requests for proposals for venues in three other cities or towns, Lottery Chair Simmelkjaer said.
While the quasi-public agency hasn’t made a decision about where the other venues might go, Simmelkjaer said Danbury is one likely location.
Simmelkjaer said sports betting will certainly improve CT Lottery’s revenue generation, but he doubts it will eclipse the money it makes on lottery tickets and other operations it’s run for years. The state lottery did $1.5 billion in sales last year, garnering more than $400 million in profits, Simmelkjaer said.
“As great as sports betting is, it is not going to bring in revenue that is going to dramatically change our revenue picture,” Simmelkjaer said. “It’s going to be a nice addition.”
