Bally Bet Now Targeting July Launch in Massachusetts

Bally Bet officially missed its target date for launch in the Massachusetts market. It looks like sometime in July, possibly as early as Monday, could be the day it goes live in the Bay State. It'll be another competitor for our best sports betting sites operating in the state.

Bally Bet was originally slated to join the Massachusetts sports betting scene on June 27, but the company had “one outstanding issue” to address before receiving its final clearance and final sign-off by the regulatory body, according to Interim Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Jordan Meynard. 

A compliance meeting has been set for Monday, during which Bally Bet is expected to get the go-ahead to finally join the Massachusetts sports betting apps family a year after being licensed in the state. Bally Bet is poised to become the seventh app operating in the state.

The long road

Bally Bet had originally signaled its desire to become part of the Massachusetts legal sports betting family in January 2023 but has now gotten all of its ducks in a row. The company actually received a category 3 license and paid the licensing fee but failed to go live.

An apparent focus on its iGaming product and real-money online casinos and its launch in the Rhode Island sports betting market were cited as reasons for the nearly 18-month delay in going live in Massachusetts. Financial concerns for the company also contributed.

It forced the company to re-up with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the payment of a $1 million renewal fee in January.

In March, Bruce Band, a representative of Bally's, pointed to a Massachusetts launch during the second quarter of 2024, a timeline that the company just narrowly missed.

“It’s taken us some time to get here,” Bally's COO Brett Calapp said at an MGC meeting in March.

The Massachusetts market

Bally Bet will be going live in a very competitive Massachusetts market in which all of the best sportsbooks have a presence. The market has also seen two sports betting providers, WynnBET and Betr, flee because of the tough competition there.

Boston-based DraftKings has dominated Massachusetts since launch, consistently claiming a 50% monthly market share or better. In May, DraftKings Massachusetts boasted a 52% market share, while FanDuel Massachusetts claimed about a 30% share. 

The drop-off after that is drastic. Bally Bet will fall into a tier that includes BetMGM Massachusetts, which had a 6.3% market share in May; ESPN BET Massachusetts and its 4.6%; Caesars Sportsbook Massachusetts, 3.7%; and Fanatics Sportsbook Massachusetts, with its 3.5% market share. Bally Bet will need to offer appealing Massachusetts sportsbook promos to compete.

Player limits once again on the table

A contentious issue between the MGC and providers in the state looks to be back on the radar after Massachusetts sports betting apps initially declined to participate in a meeting to discuss player limits in the state. A previous meeting on the topic saw the major Massachusetts operators opt out and skip the meeting altogether.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Board agreed to meet on August 1 to discuss the questions that they would ask those same operators. All of them have signaled their intentions to attend the meeting this time around.

The commission's goal is to find out how each of Massachusetts's best sportsbooks handles the controversial topic of Player Limits. It is still unclear whether Massachusetts operators will provide any helpful information about the topic.