Wagering big on sports betting

Mobile rollout will arrive in time for March Madness

By C HRIS Van BUSKIRK cvanbuskirk@masslive.com

The future of the sports betting industry in Massachusetts remains murky after it kicked into gear last month with the launch of in-person wagering and as mobile betting is expected to start in the spring, experts and state officials said in a series of interviews.

Regulators cleared 11 mobile businesses and three casinos to offer wagers on all types of sporting events. But the promise the industry holds for state coffers appears to be only a fraction of a typical state budget based on the few public tax revenue predictions that have been made.

With inflation continuing to play a role in daily life and fears of a recession persisting, some industry analysts also said smaller wagering businesses could end up leaving Massachusetts as major players like FanDuel and DraftKings eat up large portions of the market share.

Sports betting consultant Bill Pascrell III, of the Princeton Public Affairs Group, said the future of the industry on a national level looks bleak. He said the way it initially matured through “a land grab for market acquisition” and luring players in with bonus bets is “not sustainable.”

“The market is not profitable,” he said. “All of these companies are scraping and trying the best they can with potentially a recession on the horizon. They’re all trying to become profitable, but it’s going to be hard for them.”

In Massachusetts, where six mobile sports betting operators not tied to a casino have been given the initial greenlight to operate later this year alongside another five tied to casinos, the short- to mid-term outlook is positive.

But Martin Lyka, an executive at the sports betting and gambling company Entain, which helped launch BetMGM, said regulatory decisions in other states have led to higher costs of doing business.

In Massachusetts, he said, mobile-only licensees will have “a goal that they’ll try to make the most of it.”

“But not all of them might be able to sustain the continuous pressure in the long run,” he said.

State regulators heavily scrutinized the financial stability of each sports betting licensee and in giving them the green light to operate here,