With a population of more than 21 million residents and tens of millions of visitors each year, Florida is viewed as one of the most fertile untapped online sports-betting grounds in the nation.

The proposal would have steered tax revenues from sports betting toward what is known as the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund to supplement public school dollars.ĭraftKings pumped $22.7 million into the initiative, which was launched last summer, and FanDuel contributed nearly $14.5 million. “We will be considering all options in the months ahead to ensure that Floridians have the opportunity to bring safe and legal sports betting to the state, along with hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support public education,” Johnson’s statement said. Under state law, petition signatures are only valid for one election cycle, meaning the group would have to start from scratch. It’s unclear whether backers of the proposal will launch another effort for the 2024 ballot. “We want to thank our local supervisors of elections and staff members for their diligent work in verifying petitions.” “While pursuing our mission to add sports betting to the ballot we ran into some serious challenges, but most of all the COVID surge decimated our operations and ability to collect in-person signatures,” committee spokeswoman Christina Johnson said in a prepared statement Friday. Supporters blamed an outbreak late last year of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus for missing the mark. As of Friday, the committee had submitted 472,927 valid signatures, according to the state Division of Elections website.

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