Big First Showing for Mobile Handle in Massachusetts

Big First Showing for Mobile Handle in Massachusetts
Fact Checked by Pat McLoone

Welcome to the big leagues, Massachusetts sports betting!

The Commonwealth opened with three retail sportsbooks on Jan. 31 and then launched with six mobile providers on March 10.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) on Tuesday released its official March monthly report.

Total sports betting (retail, mobile) handle for the month recorded more than $568 million, which includes the first full month (21 days, actually) of mobile sports wagering.

Massachusetts betting apps alone posted more than $548 million, which affected the brick-and-mortar side of things. After an inaugural launch of more than $24.97 million, the second full month showed a decrease of $5 million in March, coming in at just shy of $20 million.

A huge increase in the Commonwealth's sports betting taxable gaming revenue was generated as well, going over $47 million ($45.60M online, $1.45M retail). It was $2 million for retail only in February.

Sports betting taxes collected by the state: $9.34 million ($9.12 million online, $218,296 retail). Retail taxes actually dropped in March, from $301,534 in February.

All three casinos in the state - MGM Springfield (BetMGM Massachusetts), Plainridge Park Casino (Barstool Sportsbook), and Encore Boston Harbor (WynnBET) in Everett - launched their brick-and-mortar locations as Category 1 sports wagering operators on Jan. 31.

Encore Boston Harbor led the way in retail handle for March at more than $13.44 million. Plainridge Park ($4.89M) and MGM Springfield ($1.66M) followed.

Here are March handle numbers by mobile operator:

  1. DraftKings: $257.63 million
  2. FanDuel: $181.08M
  3. BetMGM $45.27M
  4. Barstool Sportsbook $29.51M
  5. WynnBet $18.21M
  6. Caesars $16.4M

It will be interesting to see numbers moving forward to see if Boston-based DraftKings Massachusetts continues to hold the top spot over FanDuel.

Taxable gaming revenue by each mobile sportsbook: FanDuel ($16M), DraftKings ($15.56M), BetMGM ($7.31M), Barstool ($2.89M), WynnBET ($2.02M) and Caesars ($1.81M).

A 20% online tax is implemented on each mobile provider.

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Records Broken at All Three Casinos

All three casinos in Massachusetts broke their combined handle records for slots and table games, and casino revenue (combined) also set a new standard, separate from sports betting.

Encore Boston Harbor, MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park combined to generate more than $866.6 million in gaming handle, marking a 12.6% increase from February. The new record breaks the mark of $821.68M set in March 2022.

Individually, all three broke their own gaming handles: 

Encore: $439.78M (breaks mark of $427.73M in March 2022)

MGM Springfield: $228.31M (breaks mark of $219.41M in July 2021)

Plainridge Park: $198.51M (breaks mark of $194.62M in July 2017)  
 
Revenue totals also set a new standard, combining for more than $104.51M, a 6.6% increase from February. The new recordbreaks the old mark of $103.24M set in Dec. 2022. Count on BetMassachusetts.com for revenue reports and sports betting news, as well as for Massachusetts sportsbook promos.

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Author

Lou Monaco had been East Coast Scene columnist for Gaming Today in Las Vegas since June 2019, covering the East Coast sportsbook scene. He also currently is a part-time writer for the high school sports department for NJ Advanced Media (NJ.com) in Iselin, NJ. Lou has over 30 years sports experience with previous stints at ESPN SportsTicker, Daily Racing Form and Oddschecker.

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