Seminole Tribe sues DraftKings over prediction markets in Florida

The Seminole Tribe of Florida sued DraftKings on Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court, alleging the company’s prediction markets and fantasy products violate the Tribe’s exclusive right to operate sports wagering in the state. The 72-page complaint also names CEO Jason Robins and GUS III LLC, which operates as DraftKings Predictions; it includes a civil racketeering claim and seeks a court order blocking the offerings as well as recovery of all revenues and profits earned in Florida.

What the Seminole Tribe alleges against DraftKings in Florida

The complaint says Floridians can bet on moneylines, point spreads, totals, player props and parlays through the DraftKings Sports & Casino app, using an interface almost identical to licensed sportsbooks in other states. Tribe attorneys argue that the fact DraftKings Predictions “can run in the background does not turn sports betting into ‘commodity trading.’”

The filing also accuses DraftKings of changing how prices were displayed to customers in Florida on August 28, replacing traditional American odds with contract prices expressed in cents without changing the underlying offer. That change followed guidance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on August 7 warning prediction-market operators about the risk of displaying prices in sports-odds format. The Tribe states: “DraftKings changed the price label. It did not change the price, the product or the transaction.”

The complaint further asserts DraftKings offered sports contracts to customers from age 18, below Florida’s minimum sports-betting age of 21, and that it permitted player props on college athletes, which are prohibited by the 2021 compact.

Relationship to the 2021 compact and the economic figures

The 2021 gaming compact between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe grants the Tribe exclusive rights to sports betting through Hard Rock Bet in exchange for payments of at least $2.5 billion to the state over five years. The complaint frames the clash as a conflict between that agreement and DraftKings’ national expansion, which has backed prediction markets as a lower-cost, higher-margin growth channel.

The Tribe also accuses Jason Robins of personally directing the Florida expansion, citing his control of roughly 89% of DraftKings’ voting power.

Timeline of DraftKings’ entry into prediction markets and related products

DraftKings entered prediction markets in December 2025, offering event contracts in Florida and other states including California and Texas, where online sports betting remains illegal. The company launched Pick6 in Florida in January and rolled out its unified Sports & Casino app nationally in June, designed to route customers to traditional sports betting or prediction markets depending on location. Its conventional sportsbook and online casino remain unavailable in Florida.

The company has pitched prediction markets to investors as a large opportunity to reach millions of potential customers without state sports-betting restrictions. DraftKings said integrating Predictions into its main app cut customer-acquisition costs by more than 80% in April and that it planned to invest between $200 million and $300 million in the business during the year.

DraftKings began reporting Sportsbook and Predictions revenue under a single category, Sports, in the second quarter, seeking to present the new line of business as part of its core operations.

National legal context: jurisdictional competition and emerging markets

The use of prediction markets by Kalshi and Polymarket accelerated legal debate about whether federal commodities law preempts state authority to regulate sports betting after PASPA was struck down in 2018. U.S. courts of appeals are split and New Jersey is seeking review; the conflict could return to the Supreme Court.

In Florida, prior attempts to open the sports-betting market to commercial operators were advanced through citizen-initiative campaigns backed by DraftKings and FanDuel. DraftKings contributed $22.7 million to a campaign that failed to qualify for the November 2022 ballot.

Related prior suits and parallel litigation

The Tribe’s complaint recalls that DraftKings supported —according to the Tribe— lawsuits challenging the compact, including one filed by pari-mutuel operator West Flagler Associates. A federal judge vacated approval of the compact in 2021 after finding it wrong to treat mobile wagers placed off tribal land as if they were made on tribal land simply because servers were located on that land; a federal appeals court reversed that decision in June 2023, allowing Hard Rock Bet to resume operations in November of that year. The Supreme Court declined review in 2024.

The Tribe also alleges DraftKings formed and funded Protect the Constitution LLC, which filed another suit in 2025 against compact implementation; DraftKings identified itself as the LLC’s sole member when it formally joined an amended complaint on September 17 (date cited in the complaint). That challenge remains unresolved.

What the Tribe seeks and what could happen next

The petition requests an immediate block on prediction-market offerings in Florida, recovery of all revenues and profits generated in the state, and racketeering damages against Jason Robins. If the court grants an injunction, DraftKings could be required to withdraw Predictions from Florida or to substantially change how it presents and sells those contracts.

For operators and suppliers, the case underscored the tension between product innovation and regulatory sovereignty at the state and tribal level. Courts will remain a key battleground to decide whether marketing prediction contracts in jurisdictions with exclusive sports-betting rights is permitted.

“DraftKings changed the price label. It did not change the price, the product or the transaction,” the Seminole Tribe’s complaint states.

The 72-page complaint seeks a court order blocking prediction-market offerings and recovery of all revenues earned in Florida, the Tribe’s attorneys say.

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