SBTech Overtakes Scientific Games As Oregon State Lottery’s Official Sports Wagering Partner

Oregon State Lottery (OSL) is officially just a step away from becoming the formal sports betting partner. Being the rival bidder, Scientific Games protested against SBTech being confirmed to take this position.

The Lottery Commission gave the OSL the authority to award the contract. The meeting where SBTech will formally report for duty is scheduled for April 26th. The contract is one of the largest ones in US tenders.

SBTech’s Expertise To Fight Black Market Operators

What seems to be the major advantage for this supplier is the vast expertise in product design and player experience. In addition to this, they have quite distinctive features which undoubtedly make them competitive figures in the industry. As the RFP team noted:

“With SBTech’s innovative features and capabilities, the OSL can compete with black market operators effectively with a solid go-to-market strategy and positioning itself very well at launch.”

Besides this, sports betting in Oregon is in the legislation phase, waiting for lawmakers to give their final word. They are also hopeful that in-person and online betting will also become legal. If this turns into reality…

…they could be the first state on the west coast of the US to do so. The projected revenue should be about $35.5m in the first year of web-based wagering. In addition to this, in-person betting in Oregon should generate up to $27m.

Multiple Deals

Speaking of the qualifications for the position, the operator seems to be putting plenty of effort into becoming a widely-spread brand. At the beginning of February, they inked a partnership with Pala Interactive to expand across North America. This prolific agreement…

…should help both sides grow and conquer more markets with united qualities. Continuing this trend of kicking of agreements, they also ed forces with Blueprint Gaming. This award-winning studio should distribute its quality content via SBTech, which is already a trustworthy name in the sports betting industry.

SG Questions The Decision

As mentioned, SG was also bidding for the position, but SBTech was unanimously selected by the lottery’s RFP team. As a matter of fact, they were not the only ones fighting for the contract, as Playtech was among bidders as well. Though details of the protest haven’t been made public yet…

…they are most certainly in connection with SBTech’s alleged activity in non-regulated markets. The company, quite expectedly, denied such accusations, but OSL still needs to give the final verdict on the situation. The investigation should be concluded on April 19th, bringing more information such as the revenue share split and the agreement length.

Source:

“SBTech takes step towards Oregon Lottery sportsbook contract”, igamingbusiness.com, April 8, 2019.