Fanatics Advances Toward Full Five-Year License in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) held an adjudicatory hearing for Fanatics Betting and Gaming on April 30, recommending it be suitable for a full five-year license, subject to several conditions.

The hearing was announced on 17 April and held as planned, lasting for nearly two hours. 

Fanatics Going Through the Massachusetts Suitability Process

The regulator decided that Fanatics Betting and Gaming is suitable to progress to a full license, joining the six other licensed operators in the state. 

Fanatics is currently operating in the state under a one-year category 3 sports betting license. All seven operators are in a similar position and will have to undergo a suitability process to receive a full five-year sports betting license.

During the hearing, Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin said, “Thank you for the time and energy all of you are putting into this throughout the review. We appreciate the partnership, we care about you a lot, and you’re an incredibly important state to us.”

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission Investigations and Enforcement Bureau’s (IEB) counsel, Kathleen Kramer, said the bureau’s ultimate recommendation was to award durable suitability to Fanatics for a full license.

Kramer said that the IEB’s investigation has concluded that the applicant and each qualifier has established their qualifications for durable suitability. “The IEB recommends the commission find the applicant and all of the qualifiers suitable, subject to conditions,” Kramer added.

The conditions include, but are not limited to, updating or improving MGC’s understanding of Fanatics’ platform’s cybersecurity policy, and continuing to update IEB on the status of its gaming compliance committee.

Kramer noted that the suitability process is ongoing and that IEB will continue to monitor the situation. 

Other Operators All Must Go Through the Same

DraftKings was the first operator to undergo the MGC’s process. This happened in December during a nearly five-hour meeting. 

All other operators working under temporary licenses will have to undergo the same process. In addition to DraftKings and Fanatics, other candidates currently operational in the state are Bally Bet, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, ESPN BET, and FanDuel.