Seminole Tribe sues DraftKings over Florida prediction-market offerings

The Seminole Tribe of Florida has sued DraftKings, its chief executive Jason Robins and subsidiary GUS III LLC, alleging that the company is operating an unlicensed sportsbook in Florida through its Pick6 product and prediction-market offerings.

The 72-page complaint, filed Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court, seeks to stop DraftKings from offering or advertising the challenged products in Florida. It also seeks disgorgement of allegedly unlawful profits, damages, attorneys’ fees and costs.

The Tribe contends that the products are functionally no different from a conventional sportsbook, despite being presented as prediction markets or fantasy contests. The complaint alleges that the Super App offers game lines, moneylines, point spreads, over/unders, player propositions and parlays without a Florida licence or state oversight.

According to the complaint, Pick6 began operating in Florida in January and the DraftKings Super App followed in June. The Super App, branded DraftKings Sports & Casino, was advertised as “Now Live in Florida!” and included a prediction-market-powered sportsbook, the filing alleges.

The case centres on Florida’s 2021 Gaming Compact with the Tribe. The Florida Senate’s materials describe the implementing legislation, CS/CS/HB 1-A, as ratifying that agreement and authorising the Tribe to conduct additional betting while establishing age requirements for fantasy sports and sports betting.

The complaint says Gov. Ron DeSantis and Seminole Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. signed the 30-year compact in April 2021, and that it was subsequently ratified by the Legislature and approved by the U.S. secretary of the interior under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It gives the Tribe exclusive authority to provide sports betting to Floridians, the Tribe argues, in return for revenue-sharing payments that include a guaranteed minimum of $2.5 billion in the first five years.

The Tribe alleges that DraftKings’ operations divert revenue from its government and Florida public programs, while moving wagering outside the consumer-protection framework attached to the compact. That framework includes state oversight and audits, age verification, problem-gambling and anti-money-laundering safeguards, and a prohibition on collegiate proposition bets.

Among the specific allegations, the complaint says DraftKings made the Florida offerings available to people aged 18 to 20, although Florida’s minimum sports-betting age is 21. It also alleges that DraftKings designed the Super App to avoid Florida taxes and targeted jurisdictions without legal online sports wagering while withholding the products from states where it held licences because of regulatory concerns.

DraftKings rejected the characterisation of its products. It told FOX 13 that its prediction markets comply with applicable law and the federal framework under the Commodity Exchange Act. The company said Pick6 is a peer-to-peer fantasy-sports variant using a “more or less” mechanism tied to individual athletes’ performance, rather than sports betting.

DraftKings holds sports-betting licences in about 27 states and Washington, D.C., but does not hold a Florida gambling licence, according to the complaint. The filing also alleges the company spent more than $20 million on a failed ballot initiative aimed at opening Florida’s betting market and secretly funded litigation challenging the compact between 2021 and 2025.

DeSantis said the compact plainly contemplated the Tribe operating sports betting in Florida. But he described prediction markets as outside the agreement and said the broader question of whether they constitute gambling was unlikely to be resolved at the state level because the products operate nationwide.