DraftKings Fires Back At Seminole Tribe Lawsuit, Defends Prediction Markets And Fantasy Games In Florida

Leslie Bolden Fri, October 9, 2026 at 4:03 PM UTC

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Mobile BettingDraftKings pushed back Friday against a lawsuit filed by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, asserting that its products comply with federal law and do not constitute illegal sports betting. A spokesperson for DraftKings defended the company’s offerings following the legal challenge, stating that its prediction products operate under federal market oversight rather than state gambling restrictions.

DraftKings pushed back Friday against a lawsuit filed by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, asserting that its products comply with federal law and do not constitute illegal sports betting.

A spokesperson for DraftKings defended the company’s offerings following the legal challenge, stating that its prediction products operate under federal market oversight rather than state gambling restrictions.

“DraftKings’ prediction markets offering operates in accordance with applicable law and the federal regulatory framework established under the Commodity Exchange Act,” a DraftKings spokesperson said Friday. “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. While the company has deep respect for Seminole Tribe’s sovereignty, we remain confident in our legal position.”

The response comes one day after the Seminole Tribe filed a 72-page lawsuit in Broward County. The Tribe alleges DraftKings is operating an unlawful sports betting business that breaches its exclusive 30-year gaming compact with the state of Florida.

Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and ratified by lawmakers in 2021, the compact grants the Tribe exclusive rights to sports betting statewide through its Hard Rock Bet platform. In the complaint, the Tribe claims DraftKings’ prediction market functions like a traditional sportsbook and asks a judge to shut down the company’s Florida operations.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola, Jr. reached a gambling deal in 2021.

“Every wager that (DraftKings) now accepts through their illegal sportsbook siphons away revenue that funds both the Tribe’s and Florida’s public programs and government services; diverts betting from Florida’s regulated system into an underground, unregulated, and outlawed book; and deprives the Floridian who places such a bet of the consumer protections guaranteed by Florida law,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also cites earlier remarks by DraftKings CEO Jason Robins, who described the company’s product as “functionally identical” to its traditional sportsbook offerings in other states.

DeSantis addressed the lawsuit Thursday at an event in Miami, noting he had just learned of the filing but backed the Tribe’s rights under the 2021 deal.

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“They were given the purview on the sports betting, I have not read the thing I just heard about it this morning, but I think our agreement clearly contemplated that they would have the ability to run this in Florida,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis added that disputes involving prediction platforms—which include companies like Kalshi and Polymarket—will likely have to be settled by federal courts and lawmakers.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

“The question is that if you have a certain regime on sports gaming, and then the prediction markets come in, does that fall under that or do they just get to do it?” DeSantis said. “Ultimately, you are going to see federal decisions, probably at appeals and higher. Then I think you’ll probably see Congress do some things with respect to how that’s going.”

Major revenue hangs in the balance. Under the compact, the Seminole Tribe sent $1.04 billion to Florida in the fiscal year ending June 30, up by more than $200 million from the prior year. If its exclusive control over sports betting is broken, the Tribe holds the right to suspend those revenue-sharing payments.

State economists reported in August that sports betting is driving that revenue growth, noting it continues to expand rapidly as both a stand-alone activity and a share of all tribal gaming in Florida.

READ: ‘Don’t Be A Knucklehead’: Rapidly Intensifying Category 3 Hurricane Isaias Threatens Florida Panhandle Landfall

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DraftKings Fires Back At Seminole Tribe Lawsuit, Defends Prediction Markets And Fantasy Games In Florida

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