Last Thursday, U.S.-based sports gambling and daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator DraftKings announced that it had set up shop in San Francisco, California. It might seem like an odd move, given the fact that the state currently doesn’t have legalized sports gambling, and the announcement has the industry rumor mills beginning to turn. Perhaps DraftKings knows something the rest of us don’t, and legalization is closer than imagined.
Last year saw a roller coaster ride for the subject of sports gambling in the Golden State. Efforts rose and fell, but, in November, it appeared that real progress was being made. However, nothing is certain until any legislative bill receives its final signature, and California’s tribes have already been viewed as a possible huge roadblock to legalized sports gambling.
This isn’t stopping DraftKings, though, installing itself in 4,750 square feet of office space in downtown San Francisco. It is the fourth office the company has in the country, after its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and two offices in New Jersey and Nevada. Both of the last two were opened in just the last ten months.
Matt Kalish, the co-founder and president of DraftKings North America, says of the company’s new digs, “Among the iconic sports teams and landmarks, San Francisco is an ideal combination of design, culture and technology. Our committed, in-house marketing team could not be more excited to channel the spirit of the Bay Area in establishing DraftKings as an influential fixture of the West Coast as we continue to provide sports fans with the ultimate in creative sports-entertainment content.”
Sports gambling may not yet be legal in California, but DFS is (compared to New York, where a rather narrow-minded judge just made the activity illegal). This is obviously one of the reasons it would make sense for the company to want to launch an office there, but the thought of impending legalized sports gambling is what’s buzzing around the gambling world. It isn’t thought that the presence could impact lawmakers’ thought processes, but just being in the state could help DraftKings to work on public sentiment and garner more support for the legalization campaign.
California has the largest population of any state in the nation. Over 39.5 million people call it home, which means that there’s a lot of potential sports bettors and, subsequently, a lot of sports betting revenue. The Golden State, compared to countries around the world, has the fifth-largest economy, according to World Atlas, and this means that there is a lot of money at stake. While California continues to lose that money to offshore and illegal gambling because state leaders can’t quit bickering long enough to work out an equitable solution, having DraftKings around might just help tip the scales.
