PointsBet Meets Massachusetts Online Sports Betting License Criteria, Voting Begins Jan. 18

• PointsBet met or exceeded criteria for an untethered Category 3 online sports betting license
• The Massachusetts Gaming Commission heard its final applicant for an untethered online license
• The commission will begin voting on license applications starting tomorrow

The long marathon of license hearings are over, as the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) found PointsBet met or exceeded criteria for an untethered Massachusetts online sports betting license.

The MGC will begin its final vote on PointsBet, DraftKings, FanDuel, Digital Gaming Corporation, Betr, and Bally Interactive’s license applications starting Jan. 18. All six of the applicants have met or exceeded the necessary criteria for an untethered online sports betting license in the commonwealth.

PointsBet College Partnerships Questioned

Despite a rather subdued hearing, the MGC did question PointsBet’s partnerships with the University of Maryland and University of Colorado. PointsBet and the University of Colorado agreed to a five-year advertising deal in 2020, which sees PointsBet making quarterly payments to the university through 2026 in exchange for signage and advertising at the school’s football stadium. PointsBet receives other advertising opportunities at sports events at the university.

The multi-year partnership between PointsBet and the University of Maryland is similar, as the sports betting operator was named an official partner of University of Maryland Athletics.

Rick Martira, Executive VP, Media and Strategy of PointsBet, said any advertisements within the university stadiums only consist of “general branding,” such as logos or taglines. Email marketing is sent exclusively to alumni groups and not students, he said.

Commissioner Eileen O’Brien said the MGC has asked other operators with similar partnerships if they would be amenable to not pursuing advertising relationships with Massachusetts universities or colleges, which they all agreed to do. She asked if PointsBet would be willing to limit these partnerships in the commonwealth as well.

Rachel Kasper, VP, Legal, Compliance and Licensing, said PointsBet will not pursue these types of advertising and marketing relationships with Massachusetts universities or colleges.

Despite the university questioning, the commissioners largely had nothing but positive things to say about PointsBet’s responsible gaming strategies and plans. MGC Chair Cathy-Judd Stein congratulated the operator for having its responsible gaming icon and link directly on its platform homepage and described its responsible gaming plan as being “very strong.”

The commissioners did ask for more details on PointsBet violations in which the operator offered bets on prohibited events in certain jurisdictions, but were pleased when the operator reported it had a “black list” program in place that will now identify any sporting events being offered in prohibited markets.

One area of PointsBet’s application that was slightly critiqued was its diversity, equity, and inclusion statistics for its employee pool. Commissioner Eileen O’Brien described the company’s DEI stats as being “not great numbers” compared to other operators that have submitted applications.

The company, she said, consists of about 73% white employees and only 18.75% of women are in leadership roles.

“We do have an ongoing partnership in Women’s in Sports Tech to actively recruit women to our workplace. We do recognize that we have room to grow in this space,” said Laura Leffler, Sr. Director of Diversity, Culture and Employee Experience. “This is at the top of my radar to have a strong focus in this area to attract and retain women and diverse employees to our work place.”

PointsBet on its Way to Commonwealth

According to Johnny Aitken, PointsBet CEO USA, PointsBet currently operates across Australia, Canada, and 14 jurisdictions in the U.S. It launched in New Jersey in 2019 and most recently launched in Ohio and Maryland.

The sports betting operator owns its online platform source code, Aitkin said, and all of its technology is in house. This allows the company to be nimble and adapt to new strategies to improve customer experience, he said.

The MGC will begin voting on PointsBet’s application, as well as the other five operator applications, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m. Voting will likely continue through Friday, Jan. 20, Judd-Stein said.

If awarded a license, PointBet will be ready to launch in early March when Massachusetts begins online sports betting, said Andrew Moreno, Senior Director of Regulatory Operations.