Stakeholders Cosign Letter Urging Lawmakers To Legalize MA Sportsbooks

• Major sports teams, sportsbooks, and other stakeholders are urging Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a sports betting bill before the end of 2020.
• DraftKings, FanDuel, and MGM Resorts are among the sportsbooks pushing the legislation.
• The New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox have also joined in on the push.

BOSTON – Sports bettors in Massachusetts may soon have regulated sports betting, at least if local sports organizations and major sportsbooks have anything to say about it.

DraftKings, FanDuel, MGM Resorts, the New England Patriots, and the Boston Red Sox have all come together and released a joint letter, urging legislators in the Bay State to approve the presented sports betting bill before the end of the year.

All organizations involved have sighted the creation of new jobs as to why lawmakers should be quick to sign. Residents may be getting just one step closer to having a legal Massachusetts sports betting market.

Push For Bay State Betting

The current sports betting bill only needs to be approved by the legislature in order to be passed. All other tweaks and approvals have been made, meaning the bill is awaiting the final stage.

The coalition, which includes sportsbooks, sports teams, and sports leagues, has released an official letter to the lawmakers in Massachusetts which speak directly to the jobs that are desperately needed in the Bay State.

“Passing sports betting will protect and create jobs here in Massachusetts at a time when many companies have been forced to shrink their workforce,” said the coalition in the official letter. “Massachusetts has already lost jobs that could have been housed here by not acting sooner on sports betting.”

In addition to expressing the potential lost jobs, the coalition also expressed how other states have benefited from the added sports betting revenue and how it could have a positive effect on Massachusetts.

The coalition projects a potential $50 million in tax revenue annually from sports betting. Lawmakers aren’t so optimistic, however, having just $20 million in annual tax revenue in their projections.

Massachusetts has been hesitant to accept the sports betting portion of the Jobs Bill that was approved earlier in the year. The Jobs Bill allowed for $459 million in economic growth by creating new jobs.

The initial presentation of the bill included launching a legal sports betting market. While the House agreed to the sports betting provision, the Senate didn’t think the house bill was the specific place to launch a new legal market.

“This specific bill on this specific day, which we pointed out earlier in our session when the debate began is about an emergency response economically to the coronavirus depression that we find ourselves in,” said Sen. Eric Lesser, one of the conferees at the time as senators rejected a sports betting amendment. “At this specific moment, we need to hold.”

The letter to lawmakers is a final push from all those in favor of regulated sports betting in the Bay State in hopes to get legal sports betting approved by year’s end. Massachusetts bettors will have to wait and see how things play out in the legislature.

News tags: Boston | Chair Aaron Michlewitz | Chair Ann-Margaret Ferrante | Chair Eric Lesser | Chair Michael Rodrigues | DraftKings | Massachusetts | MGM FanDuel | New England Patriots | Representative Donald Wong | Senator Patrick O’Connor