Massachusetts Rules Against In-State DraftKings

DraftKings Sportsbook is based in the state of Massachusetts, but it’s getting rough treatment by the state. The operator recently had an appeal denied by the state.

Massachusetts Rules Against In-State DraftKings

The state of Massachusetts continues to be on a path towards the launch of legal sports betting, and a big decision was made earlier this week. The Massachusetts Gaming commission is in charge of sports betting, and it has planned to launch retail betting before looking to launch mobile wagering.

DraftKings Sportsbook made an official appeal to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to ask for a universal launch date of both types of wagering. The operator argues that it will be at a major disadvantage if retail sportsbooks are able to launch first.

Despite being based in Boston, Massachusetts, DraftKings Sportsbook does not have a retail or land-based partner in the state. The operator is likely going to receive an online sports betting license, but getting shut out initially is going to create some challenges.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission spent most of their time at a recent meeting discussing rules and regulations, but eventually the appeal from DraftKings was heard. After a long conversation, the MGC decided to deny the appeal from DraftKings for fear of messing up the current timeline.

A large number of states have launched retail sportsbooks before going online, but states have started to change up that process recently. In order for Massachusetts to have sports betting by the Super Bowl, a retail-only launch at first was required.

Plenty of Interested Parties

There could be up to 15 online sports betting licenses issued in the state of Massachusetts, but there is no requirement to get to that number. The MGC is going to have plenty of options though as there were 24 different online-only operators that submitted a scoping survey.

An official sports betting license application is not due until November 21, and that is when the final decisions will start to roll in. DraftKings Sportsbook is one of the companies applying for a license, and there are some other big names on the list as well.

Massachusetts expects to bring in close to $70 million in annual revenue once the industry is established.

New York Continues to Post Big Numbers

The state of Massachusetts is expected to be a pretty large sports betting market after all of the sportsbooks get firmly established. It will likely take up to a year before things are operating smoothly, but this state should start to make a run up the charts.

One state that Massachusetts will never catch is New York as that state just continues to post ridiculous numbers every single month. For the week ending on October 23, sportsbooks in New York posted a total sports betting handle of $365.7 million.

These numbers are still well below the more then $400 million in handle that was reported during the first five weeks of sports betting. The total sports betting handle in September was over $1.2 billion in New York, and that number should grow even more in October.