Arkansas Officials Meeting to Review Casino, Sports Betting Partnerships

Arkansas is set to hold a crucial meeting this week regarding partnerships between sports betting giants FanDuel and DraftKings and local retail casinos.

While Arkansas allows for online and in-person sports betting, customers can only use BetSaracen, Betly, and Oaklawn Sports. However, both FanDuel and DraftKings applied for casino partnerships that, if approved, would grant them access to the state’s market. 

The Arkansas Racing Commission (ARC) will hold the meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 11:00 a.m. in Little Rock.

Arkansas could approve casino, sports betting deals

Scott Hardin, a spokesperson for the state gaming commission, confirmed that the ARC received applications from both of America’s sports betting leaders. 

Arkansas is home to four state-licensed casinos. Those offer a variety of gaming amenities, including slot machines, live-dealer  table games, poker, and more.

DraftKings is hoping to partner with Southland Casino Hotel in West Memphis, and FanDuel is aiming to team up with Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs.

The meeting agenda has not been finalized, although 5News reported that Hardin said that Thursday’s meeting could end in a vote on both applications.

Arkansas’ gaming laws state that at least 51 percent of partnership revenue must remain with the casino. FanDuel and DraftKings stayed away from Arkansas for the first four years of online sports betting, which was launched in Arkansas in March 2022, fearing that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

However, both companies are now interested in expanding to The Natural State.

“They were not fans of this rule,” Hardin said. “Obviously, they had different agreements in other states, and at least at the time, some expressed concerns that the 51% rule would keep them out of Arkansas. Obviously, that’s not the case.”

DraftKings is currently live in 26 state online sports betting markets. FanDuel is legal in 23. 

Expansion finally coming?

Two of Arkansas’ three legal sportsbooks only have a presence inside state lines. Betly, which is also in Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia, is the exception.

Hardin believes that adding two sportsbooks with huge national profiles would change Arkansas’s sports betting industry on multiple levels. 

“This would allow the sportsbooks to utilize the technology of DraftKings and FanDuel,” Hardin said. “You could see the apps themselves change. You could see a lot of marketing around it, and I think it would definitely change the face of how this is marketed across the state.”

FanDuel and DraftKings’ hold on the sports betting industry also puts them in a strong position. Whereas they were previously turned off of the state’s revenue-sharing requirements, those same standards could cause smaller sportsbooks to abstain from submitting partnership applications, giving them less competition across the state.

Despite the opportunity, members of Arkansas’s casino industry are not pleased. Carlton Saffa, Chief Market Officer for Saracen Casino Resort, said that approving the applications would represent a 180-degree turn from the state’s operational standard.

“This is in direct contradiction to what all three casinos unanimously believed was the correct position only about four years ago,” he said, while also expressing displeasure with companies headquartered in other states having extreme power in Arkansas.