Massachusetts Sportsbooks Finished 2025 with a Flourish
The fall college and professional football season typically is a highlight for U.S. sportsbooks - and it was especially so in Massachusetts in 2025.
A state record $789.3 million was wagered in September, only to be topped by the $879.6 million wagered in October, and then by the $901.8 million wagered in November.
The $93.9 million in total sportsbook revenue in November was another state record, only to be topped by the $97.1 million held by the books in December - thanks to a robust 11.7% "hold" rate from bets kept by the books after paying out winning wagers.
The big surge left Massachusetts with $8.5 billion in wagers in 2025, up by more than 15% from the 2024 numbers. The sportsbook revenue rise was even more striking, with a collective $843 million that was nearly 30% higher than in 2024.
After four double-digit monthly hold rates for the sportsbook industry in 2024, there were seven such totals in 2025. Extensive advertising of multi-leg parlay bets that offer large payouts for the rare winners but a reliably larger hold rate for the operators has been the key factor in higher such rates.
State tax collections from sports betting soared to nearly $20 million per month in the fall, and to more than $200 million for the year.
Big DFS names maintain the lead
As per usual, leading daily fantasy sports powerhouses dominated the charts in gross gaming revenue. The highest revenue from the top sportsbooks reached $444.9 million, setting the bar quite high for first place, compared to a distant second place at $256.2 million.
Still, that figure was larger than the next five Massachusetts sportsbooks combined.
A strong October for Fanatics seemingly had the company in position possibly to overtake BetMGM for the year, but the latter held its own in the last two months for a $57.2 million to $55.3 million advantage in 2025.
TheScore, the formerly-named ESPN Bet app that was just rebranded on Dec. 1, was relatively static month-to-month while collecting $21.6 million overall. Caesars had a mild improvement in revenues in the fall but still only claimed $14.9 million in total winnings.
In last place was Bally Bet at a mere $3.6 million for the entire year – a figure smaller than three rival brands took in even in their lowest-revenue month of 2025.
Massachusetts casino revenue stagnating
While the sky seems to remain the limit for Massachusetts sportsbooks, the more mature state casino industry's gross gaming revenue rose just 1% in 2025 to $1.2 billion.
Encore Boston Harbor, an Everett-based casino owned by Wynn Resorts, grabbed the lion's share of the state's three-casino industry at $733.9 million.
Encore casino's consistency has to be the envy of almost any business. The monthly revenue totals at Encore ranged - barely - from a high of $65 million in August to a low of $59.1 million in September, as the property seems utterly immune to typical seasonal fluctuations. The other two casinos had similar, though far less modest, small ranges from lowest month to highest in terms of revenue.
MGM Springfield, in the south-central portion of the state, was a distant second for the year at $282.4 million. Plainridge Park Casino, a harness racing track just north of the Rhode Island border that features slot machines but no live-dealer table games, took in $178.3 million in 2025.
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