HARTFORD — Sports betting could debut at the XL Center as soon as Sept. 1 after a series of key votes this week.
The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) approved a series of deals at its regular monthly meeting to allow for revenue from XL Center sports betting to flow back into keeping the money-losing arena open.
CRDA board members approved agreements with the state’s budgeting body to divert gambling profits from the venue before they go into state coffers. Instead, the CRDA, which manages the XL Center, will get the money directly.
“It’s an agreement to go through a process that accounts for the money, distributes the money and does it in a certain timeframe in a certain formula,” said CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth. CRDA will manage the facility in tandem with the Connecticut Lottery Corporation.
This “revenue pass through” would go toward the XL Center’s losses, projected to total $3.2 million for this fiscal year, said CRDA Deputy Director Anthony Lazzaro. The arena is actually performing $50,000-100,000 better than budgeted in 2023, with upcoming events like a cannabis conference and WWE wrestling expected to bring crowds.
The main hurdle that remains in launching the XL Center’s sports betting outlet – or sportsbook – now lies with the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, which has to pick a new vendor to run the operation under its management.
Rush Street Interactive, which currently runs sports betting at nine locations statewide, announced in March it would “wind down” its partnership with the state – including at Hartford’s planned venue.
Bids are due Saturday for companies seeking to run the state’s sports betting and planned daily fantasy sports, providing services including player account management, branding, marketing and regulatory reporting.
Freimuth said that the lottery is expected to choose a new statewide sports betting vendor in June. “That new vendor will operationalize the spot for September 1, so it will be a tight turnaround for that individual company. But that’s true in other locations, too.”
Freimuth said that construction on the planned XL Center sportsbook project stalled in recent months due to delays in shipments of glass, HVAC parts and switchgear, the components needed to control complex electrical systems.
“We got hammered with supply chain problems,” Freimuth said. “We’re finally rounding the corner on it.” Freimuth said he expected the $4 million sportsbook facility to be ready to open by Sept. 1, if not earlier, in time for the peak sports seasons.
Construction has ramped up at the site of the planned sportsbook, the west side of the XL Center facing Ann Uccello Street. Workers were perched on lifts on Thursday as work continued to replace sections of the concrete facade with glass to allow light into the gambling areas.
Freimuth said the CRDA is also readying to field bids to completely revamp the 48-year old XL Center, a project estimated to cost a minimum of $107 million.
The economic development body plans to hire two new staff members in coming months to help evaluate the XL Center bids, paying for their salaries through fees on other projects that the CRDA is facilitating.
“The staff honestly is full bore right now,” Freimuth said, citing efforts including the XL Center and infrastructure projects in East Hartford along with budget reviews and contract oversight.
