The Oregon Lottery Commission has approved of DraftKings Sportsbook to operate the state’s sports betting app, taking over from the SBTech-operated Scoreboard.
Lottery Director Barry Pack said that the state and DraftKings have been working on this change since February. To make the deal happen, DraftKings agreed to stop offering Daily Fantasy Sports in the state, something that Oregon considers to be legally iffy.
Since DraftKings purchased SBTech in 2020, essentially the same company will be operating sportsbook. However, all users will still be required to create new accounts to continuing betting.
Pack told commissioners before the vote: “The reason I’m bringing this to you today is one of the factors we’re going to have to work on soon is how to fit a transition from one platform to the other while still heading into a busy season of professional sports, both NFL and NBA coming up here really soon. So we want to make sure that we’re able to seize the right window when we have enough information to know what it’s going to take and how long it’s going to take to make the transition work.”
He said he didn’t expect a significant drop in bettors. “We may see some players who choose not to make that transition but I think that will probably be offset by the improved customer experience and additional wagering options that the DraftKings platform will offer,” he told the commission. “The DraftKings platform is a lot more familiar to regular US sports bettors. The SBTech platform was more of a European design.”
