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Despite heavy early interest from operators, Massachusetts’s gaming regulator reported Monday (November 21) that it had received fewer applications than available slots for mobile sports-betting licenses.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) received 12 applications in total for mobile applications to fill up to 15 available market access opportunities.
Each of the state’s three casinos had the right to apply for a Category 1 license to offer land-based wagering, which each did in advance of Monday’s application deadline, which would also include the right to have two online Category 3 licenses tethered to it.
Wynn Resorts, which operates Encore Boston Harbor, submitted an application for its WynnBET platform, and reached an agreement for Caesars Sportsbook to fill its second slot.
Penn Entertainment, operators of Plainridge Park Casino, applied for its own Barstool Sportsbook, and allowed Fanatics Sportsbook to occupy the second skin.
MGM Resorts International, which owns MGM Springfield, elected not to utilize its second skin, applying only for its own BetMGM platform, and leaving the second skin vacant.
In addition, although applications for a Category 2 license, which allows the state’s two racetrack and/or off-track betting locations to offer retail betting and one tethered mobile license, were not due Monday, bet365 submitted an application to be tethered to the Raynham Park simulcast facility.
The state’s sports-betting legislation also allowed the MGC to issue up to seven licenses untethered to a casino operator, a process that regulators expected would be a highly competitive one after 42 companies submitted a notice of intent to apply for a licenses in August, and 23 companies submitted a scoping survey, the first part of an application for a mobile license, in October.
However, Monday’s application was the first step that came with a requirement to fork over some type of payment, in this case a $200,000 nonrefundable application fee.
All three categories of license will come with an additional $1m fee to receive a temporary license and a $5m fee to receive a permanent five-year license.
Only six companies applied for an untethered mobile license: FanDuel; PointsBet; Bally Bet; Betr; Betway; and the Boston-based DraftKings.
The commission has set a target of launching land-based wagering in late January and online wagering to follow in March.
The Category 2 license applications will be approved on a rolling basis, as will attached online licenses to those properties, but the online licenses attached to those licenses will not be permitted to launch until the Category 2 partner has received its license and certificate of operations.
One more mobile application could potentially come through a tie-in with Suffolk Downs, which told the commission earlier this month that it was still negotiating with prospective partners.
