Question of the Day - 03 June 2021

This is a good question, though we suspect at least a few readers won't know what it's referring to. So let's back up a bit. 

In a number of cities, the areas around the big sports arenas and stadiums are turning into "multi-use entertainment districts." In other words, the arena is the central attraction in a core of mixed-use space that combines multiple dining and entertainment venues and convention and meeting facilities that feed off the energy of the major-league teams, whether or not a game is being played. 

Texas Live!, the entertainment district around AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Thrive City around the Chase Center Arena in San Francisco are two that come immediately to mind.

For the purposes of this answer, Washington, D.C.'s, Capitol One Arena is the best example, since William Hill US has been operating sports betting windows there since last year, the first major sports facility in the country to start booking cash bets onsite. The box office is serving as a temporary betting venue, while a permanent book inside the arena is completed. Because mobile sports betting that's connected to the arena can operate only within a few blocks, according to D.C. regulations, a restaurant-bar is being developed next to the Capitol One that will also feature a William Hill sports book.

Similarly, BetMGM, in partnership with the Washington Nationals, is planning on opening a restaurant with a sports book at Nationals Park. The areas adjacent to the stadiums and arenas and restaurant/sports books will almost certainly expand into entertainment districts over time. 

Nearby, as CDC Gaming Reports Executive Editor Howard Stutz reports, "Under Maryland’s new sports betting legislation, Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium, the homes for baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, have the same rights to operate a sports book as the neighboring Horseshoe Casino Baltimore." And in Arizona, newly legalized sports betting also allows arenas and stadiums to host sports books.   

So much for the background.

The answer to the question about the teams sharing in the sports betting is a qualified no. Though brick-and-mortar sports books inside arenas and stadiums, and mobile betting in their vicinities, are a growing trend, the teams themselves are involved in neither the sports books nor any betting. The books operate out of spaces that are leased by licensed operators, such as William Hill at Capitol One Arena. Of course, if the sports team owns the arena or stadium itself, it picks up the rent money. This isn't common, but it does exist. 

So if, for example, the Washington Wizards are big underdogs in a game and win by a blowout margin with the sports book raking in the losing bets, the Wizards themselves see none of those sports book profits. However, since Monumental Sports and Entertainment owns both the Capitol One Arena and the Washington Wizards, yes, ownership of the team does make some money from lease payments from Will Hill.