It took seven hours and several closed-door executive sessions, but the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has granted the first temporary online sports betting license to WynnBet. The Category 3 license is tethered to Encore Boston Harbor Casino, which received the state’s first and, to date, only approval to operate a retail sportsbook.
The temporary sportsbook license runs for one year. It was not granted without some strings attached though.
Multiple commissioners of the MGC expressed concerns about the company’s diversity efforts, noting while numbers were good in most respects, some numbers needed to be better.
Commissioner Jordan Maynard was especially concerned with the representation of women, people of color, and veterans in the vendors the company uses and was keen to see percentages of how many of the company’s vendors fit in those categories. He asked to see additional numbers related to budgetary spending, which were not present in the application.
The MGC then unanimously voted to grant the license, but as a condition of that license, WynnBet must both provide a list of minority vendors and provide benchmarks they will aim for in the future. WynnBet will also need to pay a $1 million fee for the one-year license.
MGC was supposed to also hear from Wynn’s other online sportsbook licensing partner, Caesars Sportsbook, today. However, after the length of the first presentation, the MGC ruled to call it a day and begin with the Caesars presentation at 10 am ET tomorrow morning.
