The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has approved the first temporary online sports betting licence, with WynnBet the recipient.
After seven hours and several closed-door executive sessions, the category three licence is tethered to Encore Boston Harbor Casino, which received the state’s first and, as it stands, only approval to operate a retail sportsbook.
Within the session, the MGC unanimously voted to grant the licence but with conditions in place. As part of these terms and conditions, WynnBet must both provide a list of minority vendors and provide benchmarks the firm will aim for in the future.
Moreover, WynnBet will also need to pay a $1m fee for the one-year licence.
Running for one year, the temporary sportsbook licence comes with various strings attached after a number of commissioners of the MGC expressed concerns about the company’s diversity efforts, stating some numbers needed to be better.
Commissioner Jordan Maynard was especially concerned with the representation of women, people of colour, 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.
During the meetings, Maynard asked to see additional numbers related to budgetary spending, which were not present in the application.
