According to Justin Barrett, the treasurer of Oklahoma’s East Shawnee Tribe, there’s a tribe in Arizona that summed up its relationship with commercial partners like so: “We date our vendors for a year before we sign a deal.”

That’s essentially where FanDuel screwed up in its quest to legalize mobile sports betting apps in California. The industry leader attempted to seal the deal before so much as saying hello, an effort that was vehemently opposed by the state’s 100-plus tribes and resulted in a historically thorough rejection by voters in 2022.

“Things take time, sometimes, in Indian Country,” Barrett said during a panel discussion Thursday morning at the SBC North American Summit in New Jersey. “Some companies are really good at having a tribal presence. We see that now with a large sports betting company. They’ve really changed their perspective and hired people who’ve worked in Indian Country before.”

While he didn’t mention this company by name, it was clear which one he was referring to: FanDuel — the very same company whose initial foray into California was “ridiculous” and “damaging,” as Andrew Alejandre, the tribal chairman of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians in Northern California, put during a subsequent panel discussion at the SBC gathering.

“Building relationships, that takes time with tribes,” Alejandre said, echoing Barrett’s earlier sentiments. “We’re not going to trust you. Do you know the years of trauma we’ve been through? Tribes are still getting screwed to this day.”

Yet Alejandre then added, “FanDuel has taken a good approach trying to mend things in a positive way. If you want to learn how to work with tribes, they (FanDuel) are on the right path.”

Any initiative ‘will be tribal-led’

Part of the reason for Alejandre’s optimistic turn was the man sitting to his left at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, Frank Sizemore. 

In his role as vice president of operations for California’s massive San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Sizemore worked tooth and nail to defeat Proposition 27, the mobile betting initiative backed by FanDuel. Now Sizemore works for FanDuel as its vice president for strategic partnerships, part of a recent hiring spree by the operator that included ex-San Manuel COO Rikki Tanenbaum and former National Indian Gaming Commission Chairman E. Sequoyah Simermeyer.

“We have no interest in running another initiative. It did not go well,” said Sizemore.

As for future efforts to legalize sports betting in California, he added, “It will be tribal-led. That’s where we need to get to: one initiative that has no opposition.”

While multiple panelists expressed admiration for Florida’s sports betting model, which is exclusively controlled by a single tribe (the Seminoles and their Hard Rock Bet platform), veteran gaming regulator and current Washington State Representative Chris Stearns was quick to remind everyone that the situation in California is literally 100 times more complicated.

“The Seminoles are interesting because there’s one operator, one license,” said Stearns, who was seated in the audience. “You’ve got 100 tribes. How are you going to make that work?”

“I don’t know. We’ve got to work together,” replied Dan Little, chief intergovernmental affairs officer, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. “When’s the last time all 50 states agreed on something? We’ve got 110 tribes.”