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his time last year, it wouldn’t have mattered much to Coloradans that Ukrainians were possibly fixing ping-pong matches. But now that sports betting is legal as of May 1 — with plenty of physical and online sports books ready to take bets — it’s good Colorado had a plan in place to deal with the potential fraud. Coloradans had been betting on ping-pong more than any other sport; about $6.5 million in bets were made in Colorado on the sport in May alone. New Jersey, which also allows sports wagering, flagged it first on July 7, and Colorado subsequently shut down betting on some matches. “It was just a smart move for us to back off and suspend betting so we could protect the consumer,” says Dan Hartman, director of the Colorado Division of Gaming. “We would do that with any sport, not just pingpong or anything else. There has been match-fixing in other kinds of sports around the world for the last umpteen years.” It was an early test for Colorado regulators — the State had a little more than five months to build a sports betting system from the time voters approved Prop DD in November last year until its launch in May. Through hours upon hours of stakeholder meetings, field trips to states with legalized sports betting,
Cash flows
to help Colorado tremendously. Not all states did that — to their detriment.” Hartman says there is a vetting process in place to make sure the companies rushing in to offer sports betting are legitimate — operators have to apply for a license and undergo background vetting procedures, even if they partner with an already licensed casino in Colorado. Within this framework, there is variability for sports books to provide something different from one another and beyond traditional casino offerings. For instance, bets in brick-and-mortar casinos are capped at $100, but online sports books have no limits on wagers. Stevens says Circa can use that as a market advantage — offering “larger action” and wooing professional bettors to its platform. Recognizing all this potential, sports books were eager to help efforts to pass Prop DD last year — Draft Kings and FanDuel, two of the biggest mobile sports wagering companies in the country, contributed about $1.3 million each to pass the measure, with casino groups that operate in Colorado contributing smaller amounts. But some have expressed concern about letting out-of-state operators have such a large stake in what looks to become booming business in
Colorado built a sports betting program in less than six months, with tax revenue pegged for water projects. Not even COVID could stop sports books from flooding the market.
by Matt Cortina
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
internal conversations and more, the Division of Gaming created a system that has some safeguards against fraud and problem gambling in place, but that has also ushered in a ton of interest from in-state casinos and out-of-state sports books. “We certainly didn’t go out and reinvent the wheel,” Hartman says. Regulators used existing gambling framework to build out the system. The 33 casinos in Colorado each got a “master license,” Hartman says, to allow sports betting. The license allows them to offer both online and brick-and-mortar betting either through their own companies or by partnering with companies that run I
betting operations. So far the state has issued 25 internet licenses and 19 retail licenses. Las Vegas-based Circa Sports launched its mobile sports betting operation in Colorado on July 1, the first foray outside Nevada for the company. CEO Derek Stevens says the State of Colorado streamlined the process for getting sports books up and running on its expedited timeline. “We thought Colorado did a great job in evaluating the industry, a great job evaluating the landscape and setting up a regulatory environment that is really optimal,” Stevens says. “The element of remote registration and remote funding is going JULY 16, 2020
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