Seminole Tribe sues DraftKings, says group is running illegal Florida sports betting
The Seminole Tribe of Florida on Thursday filed a lawsuit against gambling company DraftKings and its CEO, accusing the group of running an illegal sports betting operation in Florida.
Read more José Javier Rodríguez gets $5 million national injection for Florida AG race
Under a 2021 gaming compact signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Seminole Tribe has the exclusive right to run sports betting in Florida for the next nearly 25 years. In exchange for the monopoly, the tribe has to give billions of dollars back to Florida.
But in a Thursday lawsuit filed in Broward County, the tribe said DraftKings is flouting the law.
The 72-page legal complaint includes screenshots and photos of online advertisements and billboards telling people that DraftKings is “now in Florida.”
DraftKings is a digital company that operates across all 50 states but is headquartered in Massachusetts. It offers sports betting in 27 states, according to its website. Other states, including Florida, are covered by prediction markets.
“Florida has decided that legal sports betting should be conducted through a single, accountable, trustworthy, and heavily regulated operator, and it selected the Tribe, not DraftKings, as the steward of its policy,” the lawsuit said.
The Seminole Tribe is asking the Broward County court to shut down DraftKings’ Florida operation, including two specific programs the tribe takes issue with: Pick6 and the Super App sportsbook.
It is also asking the court to hand over the money DraftKings made in Florida, which the Tribe will use for “consumer protection initiatives and problem-gambling recovery programs,” according to the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for DraftKings said in a statement that their prediction markets operate in accordance with applicable law.
“Furthermore, DraftKings Pick6 is a peer-to-peer fantasy sports variant centered on a simple ‘more or less’ mechanic tied to individual athlete performance metrics and is not sports betting,” the DraftKings spokesperson said in a statement.
“While the company has deep respect for Seminole Tribe’s sovereignty, we remain confident in our legal position,” DraftKings said.
At a Thursday news conference, DeSantis said he hadn’t seen the lawsuit but said the gaming compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe has worked well to help Florida recover money it wasn’t getting before.
Read more Dream sweep Liberty, advance to first WNBA Finals since 2013
“I think our agreement clearly contemplated that they would have the ability to run this in Florida,” he said.
The Seminole Tribe is also accusing DraftKings CEO Jason Robins of violating Florida’s anti-racketeering act.
Unlike the Seminole Tribe, the lawsuit argues, Robins and DraftKings do not have to pay “even a penny” in taxes to Florida, which they argue wrongfully takes money away from Florida’s environmental and educational programs.
The lawsuit argues that DraftKings’ Super App and Pick6 products operate as sports betting, not prediction markets.
The Tribe said there is no distinction between what a DraftKings page looks like in Florida, where the company describes its products as prediction betting, and in a state where they have a license to operate sports betting.
DraftKings also separates its sports page from other predictions, according to the lawsuit. And the lawsuit points to the “1-800-GAMBLER” disclosure on DraftKings’ advertisements as evidence that they are offering gambling, not prediction trading.
“The warning is DraftKings’ own admission, printed on its own advertisements, that the Super App sportsbook is a gambling product and not a financial market,” the lawsuit said.
DraftKings has tried to open up Florida’s betting market before to no avail. In 2021, it, along with the gaming company FanDuel, tried to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That initiative failed.
In its lawsuit, the Seminole Tribe said that DraftKings also “secretly funded” a series of lawsuits attacking the gaming compact, including a 2021 lawsuit from two pari-mutuel facilities, a 2024 lawsuit from the same group and a 2025 lawsuit from an LLC called “Protect the Constitution.”
“Having failed to change Florida law through the ballot box and the courts, DraftKings … has now pivoted to proceeding as though the law, the Compact, and the Tribe’s exclusive rights simply do not exist,” the lawsuit said.
DraftKings also often makes political donations. That includes giving half a million dollars this election cycle to the Republican nominee for governor, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds. The Seminole Tribe of Florida has given Donalds $5.5 million.
Read more Defending champion Knicks table contract talks, focus on upcoming NBA season
This story was originally published October 8, 2026 at 12:58 PM.
Post Comment