Maryland Launches Online Sportsbooks Prior to Busy Seasonal Period

After what seems like an eternity, Maryland’s mobile sports betting platforms launched on Wednesday, just in time to reap the considerable commercial reward from a bumper weekend of sports action. Yesterday’s inception of the Old-Line State’s online sportsbook market ends a protracted eighteen-month period, where a bureaucratic approval process frustrated politicians, operators and bettors alike.

However, in recent months, Maryland’s Sports Wagering Application Review Commission (SWARC) finally began to get the bit between its teeth, and even pulled forward a licensing meeting intended for this week into last, which saw a number of operators provisionally given authorisation to host localized sportsbook platforms. From 9.00AM yesterday, seven sports betting firms went live in the state, to commence an industry which is believed will accrue a staggering $100m per annum by 2027 and generate $30m a year in state taxation contributions.

Each of the seven early entrants are tethered to an existing land-based retail sportsbook (or in PointsBet’s case on water, via its affiliation with Charles Country’s Riverboat Casino on the Potomac), with most linked to one of Maryland’s bricks-and-mortar casinos. The new marketplace goes live with most of the industry’s big boys in attendance, as BetMGM, Barstool, Caesar’s, DraftKings, and FanDuel offer their products to a public who initially voted to legalize sports betting way back in May 2021. Marylanders may have been able to place in-person sports bets for the best part of a year, but the convenience and accessibility of mobile wagering will surely attract many more residents to the odds markets; many of whom will likely take advantage during the holiday season, with NFL’s usual roster of competitive activity coming this weekend, and FIFA’s 2022 World Cup currently ongoing in Qatar.