No – Operators are not permitted to offer wagers on college teams from Massachusetts that are not involved in a collegiate tournament.  G.L. c. 23N, § 3; 205 CMR 247.01(2)(a).

G.L. c. 23N, § 3 defines the term “sports event or sporting event.”  Per statute, sports events or sporting events are “a professional sport or athletic event, collegiate sport or athletic event, a collegiate tournament, motor race event, electronic sports event or other event authorized by the commission under this chapter; provided, however, that “sporting event” shall not include: (i) high school and youth sports or athletic events; or (ii) a collegiate sport or athletic event involving 1 or more collegiate teams from the commonwealth unless they are involved in a collegiate tournament.” Offering a wager on a college team from Massachusetts that is not in a tournament would violate the prohibition on allowing wagers on collegiate sport or athletic events involving 1 or more collegiate teams from the commonwealth unless they are involved in a collegiate tournament.

No – For the reasons explained immediately above, Operators are not permitted to offer wagers on college teams from Massachusetts if the outcome of the wager is decided via regular season results only and not via a collegiate tournament. G.L. c. 23N, § 3; 205 CMR 247.01(2)(a).

No – Employees, subcontractors, directors, owners, officers, or Qualifiers of an Operator, as well as those within the same household, shall not place wagers through the Operator, or through any other Operator tethered to the Operator, on any event.  205 CMR 243.  For example, an employee of a Category 1 Operator may not place a wager through their employer or through any of the Category 3 Operators tethered to their employer.

No – Operators are not permitted to offer wagers on awards given to individual collegiate athletes.  G.L. c. 23N, § 3; 205 CMR 247.01(2)(a).

G.L. c. 23N, § 3 defines the term “sports wagering.”  Per statute “sports wagering shall not include the acceptance of any wager: (i) with an outcome dependent on the performance of an individual athlete in any collegiate sport or athletic event, including, but not limited, to in-game or in-play wagers.”  Id.  Offering a wager on an award given to individual collegiate athletes would violate the prohibition on wagers with an outcome (i.e. – the award) dependent on the performance of an individual athlete in any collegiate sport or athletic event.

Yes – Operators may offer wagers on collegiate tournaments that occur in Massachusetts.  There is not a statutory or regulatory prohibition on offering wagers due to the location of the tournament.

No – Operators are not permitted to offer wagers on college teams from Massachusetts before they have qualified for a collegiate tournament. G.L. c. 23N, § 3; 205 CMR 247.01(2)(a).

G.L. c. 23N, § 3 defines the term “sports event or sporting event.”  Per statute, sports event or sporting events are “a professional sport or athletic event, collegiate sport or athletic event, a collegiate tournament, motor race event, electronic sports event or other event authorized by the commission under this chapter; provided, however, that “sporting event” shall not include: (i) high school and youth sports or athletic events; or (ii) a collegiate sport or athletic event involving 1 or more collegiate teams from the commonwealth unless they are involved in a collegiate tournament.”

Offering a wager on a college team from Massachusetts prior to the team qualifying for the tournament would violate the prohibition on allowing wagers on collegiate sport or athletic events involving 1 or more collegiate teams from the commonwealth unless they are involved in a collegiate tournament. A team that has not yet qualified for a tournament is not yet involved in the tournament.

Once the Massachusetts team has qualified for the tournament, tournament-related wagers may be offered on that team. Wagers may also be offered where Massachusetts teams are automatically qualified to participate in a tournament (ex. the Beanpot).

Yes – Operators may offer wagers on college teams that are not from Massachusetts if the outcome of the wager is decided via regular season results only. The statutory and regulatory prohibitions on collegiate wagers only prohibit wagers on teams from Massachusetts.

See our Sports Wagering Internal Controls Instructions, which are also available on our Forms and Instructions page.

Submit the Temporary License to Conduct Sports Wagering Form, which can be found on the Forms page, and relevant fees.

All individuals who currently receive, or who are reasonably expected to receive within one calendar year from the date of submission must be included.

All compensation should be included. If an amount is uncertain, an estimation is acceptable. Best practice would be to itemize the compensation and amounts. E.G.: Employee salary $250k; bonus – up to 25% of salary or 100k; equity (RSUs, NSOs, SARs, etc.) – approximately $800k total.

“Total annual compensation received during the last calendar year” would refer to the calendar year for 2021. “Subsequent calendar year” refers to the calendar year for 2022. As we are in November, there should be a degree of relative certainty regarding the overall compensation, and all forms of compensation should be included, including stock options. If estimation is necessary for the remaining portion of the year, please indicate such.

Reply with “not applicable”

If a company is awarded a sports wagering operator license, how many jobs in the Commonwealth would be associated with that license?

If awarded a sports wagering operator license, what would be the necessary time frame from the time a license was awarded to wagers being accepted?

There is one $200,000 application fee for submission of an application for a sports wagering operator license. This includes the required supplemental forms.

Per statute, the “tethered” licenses do not count toward the seven.

This was a copyediting error. The second “a” should in fact be “b” – please proceed by referencing “b”

Retail sports wagering began at the facilities of Category 1 licensees on January 31, 2023. Mobile/online sports wagering through Category 3 operator’s platforms began on March 10, 2023.

The Commission is in process of promulgating regulations on this issue.

At this point, recognizing that the Commission has not determined its list of allowable sports events, are there any commonly allowable sports events in other US jurisdictions that the applicant has already determined it will not offer?

Please visit our sports wagering application page

Category 1 and Category 3 license applications were due on November 21, 2022 at 2:00PM EST. Category 2 license applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

A Category 1 and Category 2 license is for a licensee to operate in-person retail wagering. Those licenses allow for a Category 1 licensee and a Category 2 licensee to operate up to two or up to one online platform, respectively. Chapter 23N requires those online platforms to be qualified for and awarded a Category 3 license. Each license requires a $5,000,000 license fee.

Preferably, the Commission would like to receive one PDF document containing the answers to all of the questions, in all of the sections. If an applicant has any issues submitting their documents via the MGC Secure File Share System, they should contact the MGC at mgcsportswagering@massgaming.gov.

Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to complete the fillable form as posted on the MGC website. If your response is more prolonged and requires the form to shrink the font to fit in the assigned answer space, that is acceptable. Please use the Times New Roman font, size 12, when drafting your answers for the questions in sections B-G of the application form.

There is nothing at this time that prohibits any operator from launching after an established launch date. Once an applicant is awarded a license, they must then have their house rules approved, complete remaining regulatory requirements, and be awarded an operations certificate. This will take place during an MGC public meeting.

Yes. Per MGL Chapter 23N Section 3, tethered operators must be “qualified for and issued a category 3 license” by the MGC.

Yes.

G.3 Financial Stability & Integrity

d. The submission should include a plan or strategy on how the applicant will continue to maintain and sustain the sports wagering operation if it experiences a steep decline in revenue. Further, the submission should follow up with real examples of when such circumstances occurred in other jurisdictions, and how the applicant applied its plan or strategy that led to revenue resumption.

e. The submission should include financial ratios (current ratio, debt-to-equity ratio, gross and net margin ratios) for the last five years, to be calculated utilizing the applicant’s financial reporting year-end balances. The number of ratios submitted for review should total to twenty (20).

j. The narrative submission should encompass the applicant’s understanding and experience with internal controls: controls in place that ensure the integrity of the applicant’s financial and accounting information. It should also include narrative and/or examples of the applicant’s internal control policies and procedures over its internal audit function, external audit relationship, audit/finance and risk committee compositions, executive management with financial expertise, or related governance environment

Each licensee should meet their reporting requirements independently regardless of how they obtained a sports wagering operator license.