No More PrizePicks in Florida: DFS Company Ordered Out By March 1

PrizePicks has until March 1 to exit the Florida sports betting market.

PrizePicks says it will comply with a second cease and desist order sent by state regulators on January 31.

That letter read:

“Accordingly, as Executive Director of the Florida Gaming Control Commission, I am hereby demanding you immediately cease and desist offering or accepting bets or wagers from residents of this state on the results of any contests of skill such as sports betting, including, but not limited to, bets or wagers made in connection with fantasy sports.

"If the cessation is completed within that timeframe, the commission will deem the company and all its officials, directors, and employees to have complied with the demands of the cease-and-desist order, and the commission will not take further action, including referral to the Office of Statewide Prosecution or to any state attorney."

PrizePicks pick'em contests mimic those parlay and player prop betoptions featured on the state's only regulated online sportsbook, Hard Rock Bet, as well as popular offshore sportsbooks like BetUS.  

“We can confirm that we have reached a negotiated resolution with the FGCC to cease operating our current contests on March 1,” said a PrizePicks spokesperson in a statement. “That resolution, however, makes very clear that we are welcome to operate in the state in the future, and we will provide additional details on go-forward operations in due course.”

Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen said: “We made it very clear that we do not have an issue with fantasy sports, specifically with what DraftKings and FanDuel are offering.

With that said, when we get to Underdog, when we get to Betr, and others like that, there is no doubt; not just in Jim Allen’s opinion, it’s not just the Florida state gaming (commission) opinion, it’s not just in the attorney general’s opinion, but 11 other states … have flat out said what they are doing is gambling, they’re taking live bets, and it’s illegal. And, yes, unequivocally it violates the compact.”

Hard Rock Bet's own monopoly in the Sunshine State may be in trouble now as well.

Two pari-mutuel companies have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a 2021 deal giving the Seminole Tribe control over sports betting in Florida.

Lawyers for West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp. filed the petition at the U.S. Supreme Court.   The two gambling companies claim the compact violates a federal law known as the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA, because it authorizes gambling off tribal lands.

The companies also contend the “hub-and-spoke” sports-betting arrangement with the Seminoles violates a state constitutional amendment requiring voter approval of gambling expansions, an issue that is the focus of the Florida Supreme Court case.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com