Takeaways from the SBC Summit North America conference in New Jersey

An update on California legalization and Responsible Gaming efforts

The SBC Summit North America has long been one of my favorite conferences on the yearly calendar for both the quality of speakers and networking opportunities. Due to its close proximity to New York City and Newark International Airport, SBC tends to attract more C-suite and directors, especially on the media side than other conferences. Plus, they serve food at the conference. Your move, G2E.

It’s also always a highlight seeing the new inductees into the SBC Sports Betting Hall of Fame, including the great Jay Kornegay and Richie Baccellieri. Both were very deserving of the honor and had terrific speeches on Thursday night.

Between the panels, networking events and various conversations I had, here are a couple things I learned:

Legal sports betting in California is still a ways away

I mentioned this in my wrap-up column from the Next.io conference in March, but SBC offered a unique perspective into the California legalization situation, with a panel including Andrew Alejandre, the Tribal Chairman at Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians in California. What was intriguing about the panel as well is that it had Frank Sizemore, the new Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at FanDuel. Sizemore was the VP of operations at San Manuel a few years ago and on the other side of the infamous Prop 26/Prop 27 debate of 2022, before being hired by FanDuel in January.

Several things were very clear from Alejandre’s tone and tenor throughout:

-Tribes have not forgotten what happened before and during Prop 26/27 debate

-The tribes are not pleased with how they were treated by the big operators during that time

-There is a lot of mending of the relationship between Tier 1 operators and the tribes to do before any progress on legalization is going to happen

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“The tribes want to be at the table and have a voice,” Alejandre said during the panel. “When we see FanDuel and DraftKings start to rebuild that trust, start to come and mend those wounds that they left, then we may be able to move forward. The way they came in was just ridiculous, that was damaging. Building relationships, it takes time with tribes. We’re not just going to trust you.”

Sizemore joked that he has been leading a “FanDuel apology tour,” but it has been notable the efforts that FanDuel has been making to listen to tribal members and even sending CEO Amy Howe out last month to California to be on a panel at the Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention.