The D.C. Lottery has received $500,000 in compensation from the operator of the city’s official sports-betting app for lost revenue and reputation damage stemming from an embarrassing technical mishap that kept the app offline during the Super Bowl, typically the year’s single-biggest day for sports betting.

The payment comes from Intralot, the Greek lottery operator that runs the D.C. Lottery as well as GambetDC, the only sports-betting app that works citywide. In 2019 it received a controversial sole-source $215 million lottery contract from the D.C. Council that also gave it the right to develop the city’s sole official sports-betting app; it launched in mid-2020.

A mishandled software update by Intralot caused Apple to suspend GambetDC ahead of the Super Bowl, leaving anyone with an Apple phone or tablet unable to use the app to place a bet during the game. (There were 30,000 registered users in February, half of them using Apple phones or tablets.) Android users were still able to bet, and the Gambet website still worked.

Speaking to the D.C. Council this week, D.C. Lottery director Frank Suarez said the half-a-million payment covered the estimated $65,000 worth of lost bets from the Super Bowl, the $6,300 the lottery spent in promotions to mollify angry users, and $428,000 the lottery will be able to use to “overcome that negative sentiment.”

“Being able to recoup what we believe we would have gotten in [revenue] was important, and then being able to have additional marketing funds for branding so we can reach out and acquire players, and I think that’s a good amount for that. We’re very satisfied with the end result,” said Suarez, who took the top lottery job late last summer. “You can’t measure reputational damage … but we did look at how much we would have lost in player registration and the lifetime value of that.”

Since its launch, GambetDC has received withering reviews from users, both over its interface and lower payouts than privately operated apps like FanDuel and DraftKings that are available in other states that have similarly legalized sports betting. (Virginia, for example, allows private apps to operate, and Maryland plans to also.) The revenue expectations for sports-betting in D.C. have also been slashed dramatically: Last month Suarez told the council that he expects GambetDC will bring in $1.5 million for city coffers this year, one-tenth of what lawmakers were told was possible when they were debating the sole-source contract for Intralot.

Suarez told the council this year that the new revenue estimates are just more realistic, and based on the experiences of other states that have legalized sports betting. And he said he was bullish about GambetDC’s future prospects, largely because the app is being improved and marketing efforts being fine-tuned to attract more users.

“This is truly a complete revamp and overhaul of the interface for players. Some of the complaints you have heard is that it can be clunky, it’s not set up like some of the apps from private operators that players might be used to, so this is truly taking best practices across the apps we see and incorporating those and revamping the interface so it is more user-intuitive and streamlined,” he said.

Suarez also told lawmakers that GambetDC had posted its best month ever in March, taking in $6.2 million worth of bets — 62% higher than in March 2021. He said the lottery had recently increased the app’s payout on bets to 90%, from 80%, and was expanding its retail offerings so people can place bets in more lottery locations across the city.

Sports betting is also available at private brick-and-mortar sportsbooks at Nationals Park and the Capital One Arena, with another planned for Audi Field. Grand Central, a bar in Adams Morgan, also offer sports betting. Those locations are also allowed to offer their own sports-betting apps, but they only work within a two-block radius — and GambetDC will not work within that radius.