Massachusetts Posts $25.7 Million Handle In Lone Month Of Retail Sports Betting

Massachusetts is off to a sizzling start in its introduction to the legal sports wagering arena.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) reported more than $25.7 million in sports wagering handle in the state in limited February action. It's a great kickoff for  Massachusetts sports betting, and doesn't even factor in the launch of MA online sports betting on March 10, just in time for March Madness to tip off.

Massachusetts casinos combined to make over $98 million in February revenue, according to the report released by the MGC last week; that's a 1.1% increase from the January total.

The slight increase in revenue coincides with the first full month of legal and active retail sports betting sites at Massachusetts casinos with Encore Boston Harbor (Wynn Bet), MGM Springfield (BetMGM), and Plainridge Park Casino (Barstool Sportsbook) all tallying a collective $2.1 million in gross operator revenue.

Encore claimed nearly two-thirds of the state’s handle by accepting $16.9 million worth of wagers, finishing just shy of $901,000 in gross revenue from a 5.3% hold.

Plainridge Park edged out Encore for the top total revenue spot by less than $5,000, finishing slightly above $905,000 with a 12.8% hold from $7.1 million in handle.

In sports betting, sometimes the highest handle doesn’t always lead to the highest revenue, and that is reflected in the February numbers for retail sports betting in Massachusetts. Encore reported the largest handle by a wide margin, which will likely stay the case since it is located just north of the heart of Boston.

But, bettors there seemed a little luckier than those at Plainridge Park which reported about $23,000 more revenue even though it had almost $10 million less in handle.   MGM Springfield claimed close to $267,000 in gross revenue from $1.8 million worth of bets, and paced the group at a 15.1% win rate.

All three venues finished with a positive adjusted gross revenue in February. The three MA casinos also paid the state nearly $27.4 million in taxes in February. The state was able to levy its 15% tax on the just over $2 million in adjusted revenue from the retail sportsbooks in Massachusetts, resulting in an inflow of slightly more than $301,500. 

MA online sports betting off to a hot start

Preliminary data from the first full weekend of legal online sports betting in Massachusetts is also quite promising.

GeoComply - a fraud and risks solutions provider to sports betting operators - recorded over 400,000 player accounts in Massachusetts during the opening weekend of MA online sports betting. These player accounts came from a total of 8.1 million geolocation transactions in Massachusetts from March 10-12; only New Jersey sports betting, Ohio sports betting, Pennsylvania sports betting, and New York sports betting exceeded these numbers.

The Bay State outperformed similar sized jurisications - like Virginia sports betting, Arizona sports betting, and Indiana sports betting - by a wide margin over the weekend and finished as the fifth-busiest state based on GeoComply’s reporting.

Despite boasting a higher population than Massachusetts and its seven million people, Virginia (8.4 million) recorded just 4.4 geolocation transactions over the same period. Arizona (7.4 million) and Indiana (6.8 million) have similar population sizes, yet both states had significantly fewer geolocation transactions than MA online sports betting did. Arizon had 4.9 million and Indiana had 3.5 million. 

Big early returns projected for MA online betting

Experts say that online sports betting in Massachusetts could generate up to $60 million in wagers from mobile users alone during the March Madness college basketball tournament. Other projections suggest that Massachusetts sports betting as a whole could attract nearly $5 billion in wagers in its first full year of operation, which would send over $100 million in revenues to the state.

The MA online sports betting landscape already includes some of the best sportsbooks in the industry, with local brands DraftKings and Barstool hoping to enjoy some home-field advantages with their Massachusetts roots. FanDuel will always be a major competitor no matter what jurisdiction its entering, and showed up to Massachusetts in force from partnerships with NESN and the Bruins. BetMGM made a splash in its own right by becoming the official sports betting partner of the Red Sox too. 

There’s no doubt about it that it’s a super exciting time for sports betting in Massachusetts. The six operators that have already gone live there are offering some juicy Massachusetts sports betting promos to come out of the gate flying as they prepare for what’s shaking out to be a monumental first month of online betting.