The Seminole Tribe of Florida has filed a lawsuit against DraftKings, alleging the sports betting company is operating an unlicensed gambling business in violation of state law and the Tribe’s exclusive wagering rights under a 2021 agreement with Florida.

The 72-page complaint, filed Thursday in Broward County, names DraftKings, chief executive Jason Robins and DraftKings Predictions as defendants, according to Fox 13 Tampa Bay. The Tribe is seeking a court order preventing DraftKings from offering or advertising its prediction market contracts and Pick6 fantasy sports product in Florida. It is also asking the court to require the company to surrender profits derived from its operations in the state.

At the center of the dispute is the legal status of sports event contracts offered through DraftKings’ prediction markets. The Tribe argues that these products constitute sports betting and therefore fall under the restrictions established by its gaming compact with Florida. DraftKings maintains that its prediction markets comply with federal law and that Pick6 is a fantasy sports product rather than sports wagering.

The case presents a significant test of how Florida will apply its existing gambling framework to prediction markets, a sector whose operators argue that their products fall under federal financial-market regulation rather than state gambling laws.

Gaming Compact Underpins the Tribe’s Legal Challenge

Florida’s 2021 gaming compact gives the Seminole Tribe exclusive rights to offer sports betting in the state. Approved by the Florida Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis, the agreement established the Tribe’s control over the activity in exchange for guaranteed payments to the state. The arrangement extends through 2051, according to the lawsuit’s account of the agreement.

The Tribe operates its sports betting business through Hard Rock Bet, which provides online wagering and in-person betting at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The compact was submitted to and approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior in August 2021. Although the agreement faced a legal challenge in 2022, the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld it in 2023.

The new complaint argues that DraftKings is circumventing this arrangement by offering sporting event contracts without a Florida gambling license or paying state taxes on the activity. The Tribe also alleges that the company has marketed its prediction market product in ways that blur the distinction between sports betting and trading.

The complaint cites a statement attributed to DraftKings CEO Jason Robins: “most customers do not really even understand the difference. In essence, it is the same general message to the customer.”

The Tribe uses that statement to support its position that customers may view the company’s prediction market contracts as equivalent to conventional sports wagers.

The lawsuit also argues that DraftKings’ offerings lack safeguards required under Florida’s regulated sports betting system. These include age verification requirements, responsible gambling limits and restrictions on certain college sports player proposition bets.

“Every wager that (DraftKings) now accept through their illegal sportsbook siphons away revenue that funds both the Tribe’s and Florida’s public programs and government services; diverts betting from Florida’s regulated system into an underground, unregulated, and outlawed book; and deprives the Floridian who places such a bet of the consumer protections guaranteed by Florida law,” the lawsuit states.

The Tribe further alleges that DraftKings previously sought to weaken its exclusive position in Florida. According to the complaint, the company spent more than $20 million on a ballot initiative intended to challenge the Tribe’s rights. The filing also accuses DraftKings of secretly funding legal challenges and other efforts to overturn the compact.

“DraftKings first tried to buy itself legal access to the Florida market, spending more than $20 million on a ballot initiative to undermine the Tribe’s exclusive rights,” reads the lawsuit. “But that ballot initiative failed, as did a series of lawsuits that DraftKings secretly funded for years – one that ended in a denial of review by the U.S. Supreme Court, a second that ended in a denial of review by the Florida Supreme Court, and a third that DraftKings filed in Florida state court in September 2026. Despite Defendants’ efforts, Florida’s gambling laws, and the Compact that gives the Tribe exclusive rights, remain in full force and effect.”

These allegations form part of the Tribe’s broader argument that DraftKings is attempting to enter a market where the state has already designated an exclusive sports betting operator.

DraftKings Defends Its Products as Federal Regulators Face Questions

DraftKings rejected the allegation that its prediction markets violate applicable law. A company spokesperson defended the contracts under the federal framework governing commodity markets and maintained that Pick6 belongs to a separate category of fantasy sports products.

“DraftKings’ prediction markets offering operates in accordance with applicable law and the federal regulatory framework established under the Commodity Exchange Act,” the DraftKings spokesperson said. “Furthermore, DraftKings Pick6 is a peer-to-peer fantasy sports variant centered on a simple ‘more or less’ mechanic tied to individual athlete performance metrics and is not sports betting. While the company has deep respect for Seminole Tribe’s sovereignty, we remain confident in our legal position.”

The distinction between sports wagering and prediction-market trading has become central to disputes involving companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket. These platforms generally describe their products as markets where users trade contracts tied to the outcomes of specified events. They argue that this model differs from a traditional sportsbook accepting wagers against its own odds.

The Trump administration has supported the position that prediction markets fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s authority. The Seminole Tribe’s lawsuit now challenges how that federal regulatory approach should interact with Florida’s existing restrictions on sports betting.

Governor DeSantis addressed the dispute during a press conference in Miami on Thursday. He indicated that the Tribe’s rights under the compact were relevant to the case, although he acknowledged that he had not yet reviewed the complaint.

“They were given the purview on the sports betting,” he said. “I haven’t read the thing, I just heard about it this morning, but I think our agreement clearly contemplated that they would have the ability to run this in Florida.”

The governor also suggested that the wider question surrounding prediction markets could ultimately require federal action.

“The question is that if you have a certain regime on sports gaming, and then the prediction markets come in, does that fall under that or do they just get to do it?” DeSantis said. “Ultimately, you are going to see federal decisions, probably at appeals and higher. Then I think you’ll probably see Congress do some things with respect to how that’s going.”

His comments reflect the jurisdictional uncertainty surrounding prediction markets, where state gambling restrictions and federal oversight may intersect. The lawsuit could help clarify how Florida’s compact applies to products that its providers classify as financial contracts or fantasy sports contests.

Court Seeks to Block Operations as State Revenue Comes Into Focus

The Seminole Tribe is asking the court to declare DraftKings’ Florida activities unlawful and issue an injunction preventing the company from continuing to offer or promote the products in question. Its requested remedies also include damages, legal fees and the recovery of profits, revenues and other gains attributed to the alleged violations.

The Tribe says it intends to direct any money recovered through the case toward responsible gambling recovery and consumer protection initiatives. It argues that unlicensed offerings divert activity away from the regulated market and deprive customers of protections established under Florida law.

The financial implications extend to the state’s relationship with the Tribe. Florida received $1.04 billion in payments under the compact during the fiscal year ending June 30, more than $200 million above the previous year’s total. State economists expect payments to increase in future years, with sports betting identified as a significant source of growth.

The compact allows the Tribe to suspend payments under certain circumstances if its exclusive sports betting rights are undermined, making the outcome of the dispute potentially consequential for state finances as well as the Tribe’s gambling operations.

The case arrives as prediction markets gain prominence across the United States and face challenges over whether their products should be regulated under state gambling laws or federal market rules. Its outcome could influence how Florida applies the 2021 compact to newer forms of event-based contracts.