Betr Officially Shutters Massachusetts Operation; WynnBET To Also Exit Soon

Written By Dan Holmes on February 23, 2024 - Last Updated on February 27, 2024
A picture of an exit sign for a story about Betr's Massachusetts exit.

Betr Sportsbook is no longer available in Massachusetts. The sports betting operator has shuttered its website and mobile app in the commonwealth as of Feb. 21.

Another Massachusetts sportsbook will soon disappear: WynnBET has already stopped taking wagers and has given users a 30-day notice. The departures of Betr and WynnBET will reduce the number of online Massachusetts online sportsbooks to six.

Leadership at Betr has said the sportsbook will target other markets, including Colorado, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. With its exit from Massachusetts, Betr is only available in Ohio and Virginia.

Betr was last in the Massachusetts sports betting market

Betr entered the Massachusetts sports betting market in May 2023, about two months after online sports betting debuted in the state. In a little over nine months, the sportsbook managed less than $200,000 in revenue. That placed it last among sports betting operators in Massachusetts, well behind behemoths DraftKings MA and FanDuel MA. Those two have collected more than $325 million in revenue from sports betting activity in the commonwealth.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) voted unanimously to approve a cessation of operations for Betr this week. It followed a period where Betr was required to communicate to customers about methods of withdrawing any funds from their accounts. Betr stopped accepting bets last week. The app was blocked from use inside the commonwealth starting Feb. 16.

MGC chair Cathy Judd-Stein thanked Betr for servicing the Massachusetts market.

“I appreciated your product. And I thought [as] we were putting our market together, it offered good consumer choice. I appreciated the innovations that [Betr] was pursuing, and while I personally am sorry that you’re leaving our market, I know [Betr] is going into several other markets.”

Vendors were notified earlier in February to cease doing business with Betr as a licensed sports betting operator in Massachusetts.

WynnBET request to cease operations in Massachusetts approved

In a public hearing on Wednesday, WynnBET presented its community efforts in Massachusetts, even as the company prepares to halt operations in the Commonwealth. WynnBET was required to submit a formal cessation request to the MGC by Friday, Feb. 23, at which time it stopped accepting new wagers via its mobile app and website in Massachusetts.

As with Betr, the commission issued mandates for WynnBET to offer refunds and/or settlements of outstanding bets to its customers and give active accounts notice on withdrawing funds.

WynnBET has expressed its desire to scale back online gaming across the US to focus on the brick-and-mortar casino business. Caesars is purchasing the WynnBET online casino market license in Michigan.

WynnBET Massachusetts was one of a handful of sportsbooks that launched on Day 1, March 10, 2023. For 2023, WynnBET reported $128.7 million in total handle and $7.2 million in revenue from sports betting in Massachusetts. That ranked sixth in the state among sports betting operators.

Undoubtingly, it was not enough to convince the gaming company to stick around.

With DraftKings and FanDuels gobbling up most of the market share, Wynn Resorts’ online sportsbook couldn’t obtain enough of the market to make it worth staying. Furthermore, Wynn dealt with the high cost of acquiring customers via Massachusetts sports betting promos.

Photo by PlayMA
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Dan Holmes

Dan Holmes is a Staff Writer for PlayMA with plenty of experience under his belt. Dan has written three books about sports and previously worked for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball. He also has extensive experience covering the launch of sports betting in other states, including Ohio and Maryland. Currently, Dan is residing in Michigan with his family.

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