Fantasy pari-mutuel ramping up slowly
Pub Date: 10/1/2008
By Paul F. Vang
After three weeks of Montana Sports Action pari-mutuel gaming, officials of both the Montana Board of Horse Racing and Montana Lottery are cautiously optimistic about how the new game is taking hold among football fans, whether fantasy or for real.
Under the fantasy gaming formula, 74 percent of gaming revenues are paid out to first, second and third place players, with the remainder split between the Board of Horse Racing and Montana Lottery, the hub for the fantasy gaming action.
A 4 percent share also goes to location operators.
In the first week of the National Football League Season, the prize pool was $3,352, going to $4095 in week two, and $5,032 in the third week.
Jo Berg, Communications Director for Montana Lottery said of the early sports action, It s encouraging to see the numbers continue to grow on a weekly basis. She goes on to say that as the number of fantasy players continues to grow, Montana Lottery is continuing to install fantasy gaming terminals in new locations and they re still recruiting additional dealers.
While the fantasy games are just getting underway, Berg points out that the new lottery dealers are also selling scratch tickets and lottery tickets, so that additional traditional lottery revenues are a fringe benefit to the new game.
In addition, Montana Lottery employees are now making the rounds of gaming establishments to train local management and employees on how to explain how fantasy gaming works to their customers.
As far as the mechanics of the actual fantasy gaming, Berg says the vast majority of players are personally selecting their team rosters, indicating that they understand the basic concepts of fantasy gaming. A smaller number of players are using quick picks selected randomly by the computer system.
At the conclusion of each weekend s football schedule, Montana Lottery is able to quickly tabulate the points of the team rosters and determine where the winning tickets were sold.
They notify the local dealer that they sold the winning ticket, though it is up to the participating player to check with the dealer to see if they had the winning ticket.
Berg cautioned that nothing is official until the ticket has been submitted to Montana Lottery and has been verified.
Ryan Sherman, Executive Director of the Montana Board of Horse Racing, the ultimate beneficiary of the whole process told the Montana Tavern Times, We re excited to have it up and going. It couldn t have come too soon.
While the first few weeks aren t exactly sending a flood of money to horse racing, Sherman is optimistic. It grows every week, so it s encouraging. Still, it ll take a while for it to develop and really get going.
While this year s professional football schedule is barely a month old, the Board of Horse Racing is looking ahead to new fantasy games. We re looking at a NASCAR fantasy game which would begin in February, after the football season.
Additional games that they envision for fantasy gaming include baseball, golf, and even rodeo.
We don t envision a National Basketball Association fantasy league, however, because of some problems, such as officiating scandals they ve had.
Montana Sports Action gaming is attracting attention from beyond Montana s borders.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story on August 22, 2008 about the new game.
The article points out that Montana is one of four states, including Delaware, Oregon and Nevada, grandfathered in the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, as these states had an existing form of sports gambling, so are legally free to produce games such as fantasy football.
Wayne Lemon, director of the Delaware State Lottery said Delaware doesn t have anything in the works right now, but if Montana s game turns out to be a big success he would consider it.
On the other hand, the article also points out that the National Football League has not sanctioned fantasy gaming, quoting a league spokesman, Brian McCarthy, who said, This game is not authorized nor approved by the NFL.
While Montana Sports Action fantasy pari-mutuel gaming is taking hold, there are still some clouds in the picture. Tavern Times was told in early September that a California person filed a patent infringement suit against the Board of Horse Racing.
Sherman of the Board commented, I know about the suit, but I understand intralot (intralotUSA, Montana Lottery s vendor and game developer) is handling it on their end.
Also the Montana Legislature s Economic Affair s interim Committee met September 12, and Montana Sports Action was on the agenda.
After hearing conflicting legal analysis from two government attorneys as to the game's legality, the committee voted unanimously to seek a Legislative Audit of the Board of Horse Racing's activities regarding It's interagency Agreement (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Lottery, and specifically if the BHR's actions comply with the Montana Administrative Procedures Act and with the Legislative intent of HB 616 which authorized fantasy sports based pari-mutuel wagering.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, October, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.