Eighteen companies will compete for seven stand-alone mobile sports betting licenses in Massachusetts. State gaming regulators must now decide who those seven operators will be.
All companies have until the afternoon of Nov. 21 to submit their license application and a business entity disclosure form (BED) that will help the Massachusetts Gaming Commission determine which companies are suitable for launch. Once the 18 applicants are narrowed down to seven, the MGC can proceed with the next step – investigating the background of high-ranking individuals within those companies.
The MGC plans to expedite that step by allowing so-called “multi-jurisdictional personal history disclosure forms” submitted in other legal sports betting states to be submitted in Massachusetts.
MGC Executive Director Karen Wells told the commission at its meeting today that sharing multi-jurisdictional forms between states has worked in New Jersey. She expects it would also help Massachusetts meet its timeline to launch mobile sports betting in early March.
“The ask is going to be that we have a quick deadline for that multi-jurisdictional form to be filled out,” said Wells.
Massachusetts Looking at 22 Potential Sports Betting Licensees
Twenty-nine sports betting companies met an Oct. 17 deadline to submit basic company information ahead of the commonwealth’s Nov. 21 application deadline for both retail and mobile applicants. Of those 29, only 22 will be selected to operate sports betting in Massachusetts. Of those 22, seven will be allowed to offer mobile sports betting not tied to a retail operator.
Nine of the remaining sportsbooks will be mobile sportsbooks tethered to retail operators — including the Bay State’s three casinos and three simulcast/racino locations. The last six will be retail sportsbooks.
Exactly which companies plan to apply for a stand-alone license has not been released by the MGC.
The 18 companies expected to apply for the seven stand-alone licenses wouldn’t be tied to retail sports betting operators. Retail operators would be served by at least one of five other companies that are among 23 total mobile operators vying for a Massachusetts license.
The commonwealth’s six remaining licensees would go to the casinos and simulcast/racino businesses for retail sportsbooks.
A full list of potential licensees was reported in Gaming Today on Wednesday.
Massachusetts became one of nearly three dozen states with legal sports betting when Gov. Charlie Baker signed the state’s sports betting law on Aug. 10. The commonwealth is the third state behind Maine and Kansas to legalize sports betting this year.
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