DraftKings and FanDuel Add Another $7m to Nebraska's Ballot Push, Taking It to $14.65m

DraftKings and FanDuel gave $3.5 million each in the latest reporting period, taking Tax Relief Nebraska's fundraising to $14.65 million for two online sports betting measures on the 3 November ballot. The committee registered to oppose them had reported nothing raised or spent by the same date, on Ballotpedia's count.

• DraftKings and FanDuel each gave Tax Relief Nebraska another $3.5 million between late July and 29 September, taking each company past $7 million and the committee's total to $14.65 million, three weeks after the first $7m and Tom Osborne's opposition
• The committee spent about $2.29 million in the period, about $9.22 million this year, and held about $5.4 million going into the final five weeks, according to its filings as reported by GamblingNews and Ballotpedia
• Save Nebraska Sports, the committee registered against the measures, had reported no contributions or spending through 29 September, and the Nebraska Family Alliance spent $2,109 in the period, mostly on postage for a voter guide
• Initiative Measure 440 would amend the state constitution and Initiative Measure 441 would write the rules: online betting offered by the state's licensed racetrack casinos, up to two platforms each, servers in Nebraska and regulations by 1 June 2027
• A complaint to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission over the foreign ownership of FanDuel and Roar Digital remains confidential; in Missouri in 2024, DraftKings and FanDuel gave $20.3 million each and won by 2,961 votes

The Operators Doubled Their Stake in the Last Reporting Period

DraftKings, giving as DK Crown Holdings, and FanDuel each contributed $3.5 million to Tax Relief Nebraska in the reporting period running from late July to late September, Nebraska Public Media reported on 8 October from the latest campaign finance data. Roar Digital, the BetMGM joint venture of MGM Resorts and Entain, added $250,000 to take its total to $500,000, and the Fanatics entity FBG Enterprises Opco had earlier given $75,000. Ballotpedia, which has processed the reports to 29 September, records $7,037,500 each from DraftKings and FanDuel. The four operators account for all of the committee's $14.65 million.

The committee spent about $2.29 million in the period, mostly on media placement, according to GamblingNews, which first reported the filing; its spending this year is $9.22 million on Ballotpedia's figures, leaving more than $5.42 million in cash. Save Nebraska Sports, the committee registered against the measures, had reported no contributions and no expenditure in the reports Ballotpedia had processed, and the Nebraska Family Alliance spent $2,109, largely on postage for a voter guide, GamblingNews reports. The next reports are due on 26 October, a week before the vote.

What Voters Are Being Asked

The Nebraska Secretary of State certified both petitions on 21 August, with at least 138,473 valid signatures for the constitutional amendment and 96,918 for the statute. Measure 440 would let laws allow people in Nebraska to bet through an Internet-based platform offered by a gaming operator at a licensed racetrack. Measure 441 supplies the law, according to its text in the Secretary of State's voter pamphlet: each racetrack operator may use no more than two platforms run by platform providers, servers must be in Nebraska, the State Racing and Gaming Commission must adopt rules by 1 June 2027, and the act takes effect on 1 January 2027.

In-state college games involving a Nebraska team stay excluded, as do in-game and individual player bets on any college game a Nebraska team plays. With six licensed racetracks, the model allows up to 12 online sportsbooks. WarHorse, which runs the Omaha and Lincoln casinos, backs the measures.

In the pamphlet, supporters say more than $166 million would go to property tax relief over ten years, as 70% of wagering tax goes to the Property Tax Credit Cash Fund. The committee's own commissioned study, by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, projected just under $87 million in state tax over five years, about $61 million of it for relief, the Nebraska Examiner reported. Opponents argue in the pamphlet that the measures would turn "every phone into a casino".

Missouri's Money Fought Both Ways; Nebraska's Does Not

In Missouri's 2024 Amendment 2, Winning for Missouri Education raised $45.6 million, $20.3 million each from DK Crown Holdings and FanDuel's BetFAIR Interactive US, according to Ballotpedia, and won by 2,961 votes out of almost three million. The difference was money on the other side: the opposition raised $14.2 million, nearly all from three Caesars-owned casino companies. Nebraska's measures give the racetrack casinos the licences and two online partners each, so local casinos are allies rather than funders of the no campaign. That leaves the opposition with the Nebraska Family Alliance, a Huskers assistant coach, two statewide officials and Osborne's name, and a reported $2,109 against $14.65 million. A thin no campaign does not guarantee a yes vote, but it removes the counterweight that nearly beat the operators in Missouri.

The Foreign-Money Complaint Is the Risk the Money Cannot Buy Off

Nebraska bars ballot committees from taking money directly or indirectly from foreign nationals, and the Legislature tightened the ban and raised its fines this year, Ballotpedia reported. In August the Legal Accountability Center asked the commission to investigate FanDuel and Roar Digital, arguing their parent companies are led from Ireland and the United Kingdom; its executive director, Michael Teter, said US subsidiaries could still qualify if the money and the decision were domestic. WarHorse called the concerns "based entirely in fantasy". The complaint's status is confidential, both companies have since given more, and it is not known whether the commission will act before 3 November. A finding against either would hang over a yes result, and the question will travel: operator-funded ballot campaigns are becoming the route into holdout states, and California's tribes have already asked sportsbooks for terms on a 2028 initiative.

The Spend Shows What the Operators Think the Market Is Worth

Proponents have raised $14.65 million to win a market their own study says would yield about $61 million of property tax relief in five years. The tax relief is the pitch, not the prize. Sportsbooks in five neighbouring states already take bets from Nebraskans who cross a state line, and prediction markets offer sports contracts inside it, products Missouri's attorney general has told to stop. A licensed Nebraska market capped at 12 platforms is evidently worth more to DraftKings and FanDuel than its tax take suggests, and the size of their bet says so.

The yes campaign has the money, the casinos and a property tax message, while the no campaign has Osborne and almost no budget. Missouri showed that operator money can win a close vote; Nebraska will show what it does when nobody is paying for the other side.