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Fanatics Sportsbook Massachusetts: Everything To Know About A New Sportsbook
Adam Martin | 5 mins
We aren’t far away from legalized online sports betting launching in the state of Massachusetts. Retail Massachusetts sports betting launched at three casinos at the end of January and it was a big success for Super Bowl 57.
But, on March 10, the plan is for mobile sports betting to launch, just ahead of the NCAA March Madness Tournament. It's going to be huge.
One of the Massachusetts sports betting apps that is set to launch is Fanatics Sportsbook. , according to the latest information we have.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission, after a delay in January, finally gave Fanatics Sportsbook the green light to launch in the Bay State. Fanatics Sportsbook Massachusetts will offer a mobile app via a partnership with Plainridge Park Casino, which is owned by Penn Entertainment (it was at that hearing that the official name, Fanatics Sportsbook, was revealed).
Thus, we are going to tell you everything that we know about Fanatics Sportsbook Massachusetts ahead of launch.
Fanatics Sportsbook Massachusetts Launch Details
After a small hiccup in January, Fanatics Sportsbook Mass is now expected to launch with the rest of Mass mobile sports betting operators from March 10. Because it's a new player in the industry, the delay in the approval process wasn't unexpected.
According to Bookies.com’s Bill Speros, who has been covering the Massachusetts sports betting launch, there were several reasons why Fanatics Sportsbook Massachusetts launch hit a snag back in January.
First, the actual sports betting app hasn’t launched yet, so the product demonstration was hit from public view at a recent hearing. Moreover, MGC commissioners were concerned about the lack of a responsible gaming plan from Fanatics Massachusetts.
According to the company, it has 2 million names in its Massachusetts database, but the concern is that it hasn’t adequately shown how it will separate those who are under 21 years old from those who are 21 years old (sports betting in Massachusetts will only be legal for those 21 and over).
Now that it is cleared to launch in Mass, Fanatics Sportsbook should be a big player in the state of Massachusetts. Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin has talked a big game, and in the coming months, we should find out a lot more about this sportsbook, especially in regard to its launch in the state of Massachusetts.
Fanatics Sportsbook: A New Player in the Sports Betting Industry
Fanatics Massachusetts is expected to launch in the coming months, but before it goes live, we need to talk about the history of the company before it even became a sportsbook.
Back in 1995, Alan and Mitchell Trager of Jacksonville founded Fanatics Inc. as a sports retail company, which later expanded into the online world. Then, in 2011, Michael Rubin and GSI Commerce bought Fanatics Inc. for $171 million in cash and $106 million in GSI Commerce common stock.
A year after that, Rubin bought Fanatics Inc. from eBay for $2.4 billion. Rubin decided to bring back the online Fanatics Inc. store, and since then, it has become by far the biggest sports merchandising company in North America. If you buy a sports jersey, it’s likely made by Fanatics Inc. However, Rubin’s vision doesn’t stop at just a clothing company.
Rubin has been a staple of the sports industry for years. He used to be an exclusive for both the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, so his name is fully entrenched in the North American sports scene.
However, he sold his stakes in those entities when he decided that he would be launching Fanatics Sportsbook so there was no conflict of interest. In addition to Rubin being part of the Fanatics team, he also hired former FanDuel CEO Matt King to help with the launch, which should give Fanatics a foot up on its competition.
In 2021, Rubin first announced his intentions to launch Fanatics Sportsbook, and he even brought in hip-hop recording star Jay-Z as the Fanatics vice chairman, which is a big deal.
Fanatics Sportsbook then applied for a license in New York but did not get it when sports betting in that state launched. Sometime after that, in May 2022, the Fanatics Sportsbook trademark was filed, showing that the sportsbook was on the way.
At this point, Fanatics Sportsbook has not launched yet anywhere in the United States. However, we do know that it is coming soon, and we know that one of the states that it plans to launch in is Massachusetts, where the Fanatics Massachusetts sportsbook will hopefully soon launch from March 10.
The company has also been provisionally approved for launch in both Ohio and in Maryland, as well, and it may launch in those states before it launches in Massachusetts.
In Ohio, Fanatics Ohio has partnered with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, while in Maryland, Fanatics Maryland has partnered with the NFL’s Washington Commanders and its home stadium, FedEx Field, where it has plans of both a retail and online platform.
It’s possible that Fanatics Sportsbook could launch in either Maryland or Ohio before Massachusetts, but either way, we do know this sports betting app will launch soon.
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