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20 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 15, 2021 By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com N ow that legal sports betting is underway in the Constitution State, the Connecticut Lottery Corp. plans to expand entertainment venues featuring sports gambling. The lottery is eyeing three possible locations for a venue in Bridgeport that would include food and beverages in addition to gambling, and it's working to place a facility in Hartford's XL Center, said CT Lottery Chairman Rob Simmelkjaer. "We think a sportsbook at the XL Center should be very successful," Simmelkjaer said. "It's going to have to be a sportsbook that is part of a larger dining and entertainment venue." If all goes according to plan, CT Lottery will open the Bridgeport Year OTB revenues Transfer to CT General Fund 2012 187,936,749.60 $3,737,315 2013 181,666,849.00 $3,644,167 2014 180,746,707.30 $3,723,791 2015 172,074,014.90 $3,606,125 2016 163,968,716.00 $3,485,406 2017 157,273,708.00 $3,354,294 2018 152,057,284.10 $3,278,258 2019 141,400,090.70 $3,054,163 2020 101,284,595.20 $2,333,549 Off-track betting sales in CT The launch of sports betting comes at an opportune time for Sportech, which has seen its revenues from off-track betting in Connecticut steadily decline in recent years. SOURCE: CT DEPT. OF CONSUMER PROTECTION As sports betting gets underway, CT Lottery, Sportech eye new entertainment, gambling facilities Customers at Bobby V's in Windsor Locks now have the ability to bet on sports. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED venue in time for next year's March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, and the XL Center spot by next NFL season, Simmelkjaer said. All that is pending negotiations with various landlords. In March Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law the statute legalizing online casino and sports gambling. Since then, Sportech — the U.K.- based gambling company that owns exclusive rights to off-track betting in Connecticut — has started taking sports bets at some of its 10 locations across the state, while Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos started taking bets in person and online earlier this fall. State lottery and Sportech officials say they see significant growth opportunities as more sports gambling venues debut in Connecticut. During just the first week of legal sports betting in the state, 1.2 million transactions took place, the Hartford Courant reported. Investing in CT Under the law, CT Lottery will open 15 sports betting locations, 10 of which will be at existing off-track betting sites operated by Sportech, including at Bobby V's in Stamford and Windsor Locks; Winners Sports Haven in New Haven; and seven other Winners off-track betting locations. As per a deal with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes — which operate Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively — no retail sports gambling venues may open within 25 miles of either casino. As his company in October started taking bets in New Haven, Stamford and Windsor Locks, Sportech President Ted Taylor said employees have been working at fever pitch to install sports gambling terminals at its other seven Winners locations in Hartford, Manchester, Waterbury, Torrington, New Britain, Milford and Norwalk. In addition to buying 20 new sports betting machines — which cost about $10,000 each — the company had to add electrical capacity and internet infrastructure to support the additional usage volume. "We put the infrastructure in place in terms of terminals and people and money services in existing locations," Taylor said. "So people can come to one place now for any of their betting, whether it's on horses or greyhounds or sports." Eleven years ago, Connecticut granted Sportech exclusive rights to off-track pari-mutuel betting in the state. Since then, the company — which employs about 350 people in Connecticut — has mostly run gambling books for horse and greyhound racing out of its Winners off-track betting parlors. But that business has been on a steady decline in recent years. Sportech's off-track betting operations saw annual revenues decline from $187.9 million in 2012 to $141.4 million in 2019, state records show. In the 2020 pandemic year, it generated about $101 million in revenue. Taylor said he's bullish about sports gambling's impact on his company's bottom line. Imperfect deal Sportech's desire for a piece of the sports betting action reached a flashpoint earlier this year when Rob Simmelkjaer Ted Taylor