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Rush Street Interactive (RSI), which owns the BetRivers and PlaySugarHouse online gambling and sports betting apps, is the newest online sports betting partner with a license holder in Connecticut.
The Connecticut Lottery Corporation (CLC) first selected RSI on July 6, but didn’t make the announcement right away. It first had to go through some private negotiations with the company.
This afternoon, the CLC announced its pick during a live Zoom press conference, as it had promised to do on Wednesday. CLC didn’t specify which brand RSI would use for sports betting in Connecticut, but state law may prevent it from using BetRivers, since no land-based casino names are permitted.
This is the latest development stemming from a bill signed into law in May. HB 6451 allowed the CLC to have its own online sports betting skin. All told, that law permits Connecticut to launch online casino, poker, sports betting and iLottery sales.
The road to launch is getting shorter by the day, but there are still a few steps remaining.
The most important of these is that the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the US Department of the Interior needs to approve amendments to Connecticut’s gambling compact with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes. There’s a limit to how long it will have to wait, however. Federal law will permit betting to commence if there has been no action by BIA and 45 days have elapsed since the Bureau received the new compacts.
RSI joins DraftKings and FanDuel
With CLC’s announcement, all the pieces are now on the chessboard in Connecticut.
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe partnered with DraftKings Sportsbook for its online iteration. Meanwhile, the tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino will host the DraftKings retail sportsbook.
For Mohegan, it’s a partnership with FanDuel. It remains unclear, though, how prominent FanDuel branding will be, as the partnership is being run through Mohegan Digital.
These three operators will be the only ones permitted under the terms of Connecticut’s bill and tribal compact. DraftKings and FanDuel will be allowed to operate online casinos in Connecticut, and potentially poker. RSI will be sports betting only.