The Paris Summer Olympics helped to boost the Massachusetts sports betting handle in August of 2024 by more than 68% when compared to the same month in 2023. 

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission Monday released its monthly numbers for sports wagering in the Commonwealth. 

The state's 7 online and 3 retail sportsbooks handled $447.318M in wagers. That represents an increase of 68.2% over the August 2023 handle of $305.739 million. 

The Summer Olympics were a hit with American TV viewers, in addition to bettors. There were no other major changes in the sports schedule between this August and August of 2023. 

Overall, $33.32 million in taxable sports wagering revenue was generated across the mobile and in-person licensees in August, with a combined hold of 7.71%.

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Olympic Betting Rules Different In Massachusetts

Bay State residents were prohibited from legally wagering on all events during the Paris Games. 

Among the rules in the state's betting catalog are the following: 

"Wagers on Summer and Winter Olympic competition (including trials) . . .  in which the final outcome of the event is primarily based on the evaluation or assessment of a judge or panel of judges is not allowed."

That meant no legal betting in Massachusetts on the following Summer Olympic events (listed alphabetically): 

• Boxing
• Break Dancing
• Diving
• Equestrian
• Freestyle BMX
• Gymnastics
• Judo
• Rhythmic Gymnastics
• Skateboarding
• Surfing
• Taekwondo
• Trampoline
• Wrestling

Still, bettors in Massachusetts wagered on the Games, with a focus on men's and women's basketball, track, and swimming. 

DraftKings Dominates Hyper-Competitive Market

Here's the latest breakdown in terms of online operators by handle and market hold according to the August 2024 monthly figures released by the MGC. 

1. DraftKings: 52.1%
2. FanDuel: 26.8%
3. BetMGM: 7.2%
4. Fanatics: 5.9% 
5. ESPN BET: 3.8%
6. Caesars Sportsbook: 3.6%
7. Bally Bet 0.6%

Boston-based DraftKings has commanded more than a 50% market share since mobile sports betting began in Massachusetts in March of 2023. 

In the past 12 months, the combined online sportsbooks handle in Massachusetts has been slightly more than $6.66 billion. Of that total, more than $3.443 billion, or 51.7%, belonged to DraftKings. 

FanDuel has kept its solid hold on second in Massachusetts since launch, capturing on average about 28% of the Bay State legal betting market. 

Bally's Massachusetts entered the extremely competitive market in July. Bally's will leverage its sports betting presence in Massachusetts to help build its main money-maker in Rhode Island - online casino betting. The operator hopes to lure Bay State sports bettors to cross the border and use its igaming app in Rhode Island. 

Two online operators have already left the Massachusetts market. WynnBET and betr launched in 2023 but did not renew their licenses this year. WynnBET shut down its online sports betting operations nationwide. Its New York license was sold to ESPN BET earlier this year for $25 million. 

The Boston Celtics run to Banner 18 boosted betting handles in the Bay State. The 6 online and 3 retail sports betting operators in the Bay State in June at the time booked $509,356,529.22 in handle during the month of June, according to figures released by the MGC.

That figure represented a 65.1% increase over June of 2023, The difference in handle between June 2023 and June 2024 was $177.33 million. Last June, the Celtics missed the NBA Finals when they lost the Eastern Conference finals to the Miami Heat in seven games. That series ended on May 26. The 2024 Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the NBA Finals. All 5 games took place in June, with the Finals ending on June 17.