SBTech is suing multiple entities to prevent the public from learning details of its sports betting contract with Oregon.
Several weeks ago, the Oregon Department of Justice approved a public records request from LegalSportsReport.com to look at the contract between the Malta-based SBTech and the Lottery. This contract forms the basis for the new Scoreboard app, which went live in October.
SBTech resisted the order and has gone to court against LegalSportsReport, the Oregon Lottery, the Department of Justice and the Oregonian, which has also requested to see the contract.
The company’s merger with the largest sports betting giant, DraftKings, is pending. The publications may be interested in how much the Lottery will pay SBTech, although a procurement memo on the Lottery website had said the amount would be 9-11 percent before it was removed.
The media’s interest has been piqued by the fact that, although the Scoreboard app generated $943,687 in revenue in November, that the state lost $307,000 for that month. Total losses since the app launched are more than $2.2 million, despite there being $1.1 million in gross revenue for the app.
The Lottery has released portions of the compact, but that did not include six pages related to how the revenue is shared between SBTech and the state.
The vendor successfully petitioned the court for a temporary restraining order on January 10, alleging that it would be put at a competitive disadvantage if its agreement was disclosed, and would suffer “irreparable economic harm” if its “trade secrets” become public knowledge.
The company also claims that when it bid for the contract it did so under the assumption of confidentiality.
In its court filings SBTech said, “SBTech provided the Proprietary Information to the Oregon State Lottery as part of a confidential bidding process. If a party cannot trust that its secrets will be protected when that party attempts to do business with Oregon state agencies, then the willingness of future companies to provide such information will be suppressed. Oregon taxpayers will suffer.”
A court date has not yet been scheduled.
