When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018, it set off a state-by-state gold rush that reshaped American gambling almost overnight. Within weeks, established casino operators and gaming technology companies began racing to stake their claims in what would become one of the fastest-growing legal markets in the country. BetMGM emerged directly out of that moment a joint venture built specifically to combine a century of land-based casino brand equity with European-grade digital betting technology. Today, it stands as one of the most recognizable names in U.S. online sports betting and iGaming, even as the competitive landscape around it has shifted dramatically.
Overview of the US Online Gambling Market
To understand BetMGM’s trajectory, it helps to understand the market it was born into. Before 2018, legal sports betting in the U.S. was confined almost entirely to Nevada. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) had effectively outlawed sports wagering everywhere else since 1992. When the Supreme Court overturned PASPA in Murphy v. NCAA, it didn’t legalize betting nationwide it simply handed the decision back to individual states. That created a fragmented but enormous opportunity: each state writes its own rules, sets its own tax rates, licenses its own operators, and decides independently whether to allow online (mobile) betting, retail sportsbooks, or both.
More than 30 states have since legalized some form of online sports betting, and a smaller but growing number including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia also permit online casino gaming, or “iGaming.” Combined, U.S. sports betting and iGaming revenue has grown into a multibillion-dollar annual industry, with total sports betting gross gaming revenue exceeding $16 billion in 2025 alone. That scale attracted not just gambling-industry veterans but also tech-driven newcomers like DraftKings and FanDuel, which pivoted from daily fantasy sports, and more recently Fanatics, which leveraged its sports merchandise customer base to enter wagering directly. BetMGM was built to compete in this environment from day one, combining MGM Resorts’ physical casino footprint with a technology partner that already understood regulated European betting markets.
Formation of BetMGM
BetMGM LLC was formally established in July 2018, just months after the PASPA ruling, as a 50/50 joint venture between MGM Resorts International and GVC Holdings (the British gaming group that later rebranded as Entain plc). Each parent company committed an initial $100–200 million in capital to get the venture off the ground. The structure was deliberately complementary: MGM contributed exclusive U.S. rights to its land-based and online sports betting, poker, and casino operations including access to iconic properties like Bellagio, MGM Grand, Borgata, and Park MGM while Entain supplied the proprietary technology platform it had already built and refined for European brands such as Ladbrokes, Coral, and partypoker.
This was a meaningful structural choice. Rather than building betting technology from scratch, a process that can take years and frequently produces unreliable platforms in a fast-moving market, BetMGM essentially imported a mature, road-tested system and paired it with one of the most trusted names in American casino gaming. The venture launched its first online sportsbook in New Jersey in 2018, the same state where it remains headquartered in Jersey City, with additional technology and trading operations split across Las Vegas, Atlanta, and London.
The partnership has not been without tension. In January 2021, MGM made an unsolicited $11 billion offer to acquire Entain’s stake in BetMGM outright, arguing it would simplify ownership and accelerate decision-making. Entain’s board rejected the bid as undervaluing the business, and the joint-venture structure has persisted since, with both companies continuing to share governance through an evenly split board of directors.
Expansion Across US States
BetMGM’s geographic growth tracked almost exactly with the pace of state legalization. New Jersey was the first market, launching in 2018 through MGM’s Borgata casino license. From there, the company expanded methodically into each newly regulated state, typically partnering with an existing land-based casino license holder a near-universal requirement in U.S. online gambling, where most states mandate that online “skins” be tethered to a licensed retail casino or tribal gaming partner.
By the mid-2020s, BetMGM held active sportsbook and/or iGaming licenses across the large majority of regulated states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, Louisiana, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia, among others. Its iGaming (online casino) footprint, which is only legal in a smaller subset of states, remains concentrated in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia markets where it has consistently ranked among the top one or two operators by revenue. The company has also pushed into adjacent product categories, expanding its online poker offering through the BetMGM Poker Network (which also includes Borgata Poker and PartyPoker) and surpassing 50% market share in New Jersey’s online poker vertical in early 2026.
Internationally, BetMGM’s growth playbook has started extending into Canada, with plans to launch iGaming operations in Alberta in 2026 its first new jurisdiction in roughly four years signaling that the operator sees its long-term growth path running through both the U.S. and the broader North American market rather than the U.S. alone.
Market Position and Competition
BetMGM entered the market with high ambitions, at one point targeting 20–25% long-term market share across U.S. sports betting and iGaming. That target has proven difficult to hit, particularly in sports betting, where the market has consolidated around two clear leaders. As of early 2026, DraftKings and FanDuel together control roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of all sports betting handle and revenue nationally, having built their dominance on daily fantasy sports customer bases acquired years before most competitors entered the space.
BetMGM has settled into a strong but distant third place in sports betting, generally holding somewhere between 7% and 14% of market share depending on the measure and time period, with newer entrants like Fanatics and a resurgent Caesars adding further competitive pressure. The picture looks considerably better in iGaming, where BetMGM has consistently held a podium position with around 20% market share in active states a reflection of its deep ties to MGM’s land-based casino loyalty program, MGM Rewards, which gives it a built-in base of existing casino customers more inclined to gamble online than the average new sports bettor.
CEO Adam Greenblatt, an Entain veteran who has led the venture since 2021, has been candid that BetMGM’s strategy increasingly leans into “premium mass” customers and omnichannel engagement that is, players who move fluidly between MGM’s physical casino floors and its online apps rather than competing purely on promotional spend with DraftKings and FanDuel. Management has also pointed to strong overlap between its sports and casino verticals, noting that a majority of its online sports bettors during the most recent NFL season also engaged with its casino product, reinforcing the cross-sell strategy at the heart of its business model.
Technology and Platform Development
BetMGM’s platform has evolved considerably since its 2018 launch. Early versions of the app relied heavily on Entain’s existing European sportsbook and casino infrastructure, adapted for U.S. regulatory requirements. Over time, the company has invested in improving in-house data and trading capabilities, notably through Entain’s 2024 acquisition of sports data provider Angstrom, which has been used to expand same-game parlay offerings and deepen the breadth of in-play betting markets.
The platform today spans mobile apps and desktop sites for sports betting, online casino, and poker, with features common across the modern sportsbook landscape: live in-play wagering, cash-out functionality, same-game and same-event parlays, and a rotating library exceeding 1,000 casino titles in its most mature markets like New Jersey. BetMGM has also worked to differentiate through exclusive casino content and engagement tools, an area industry analysts have flagged as increasingly important now that core product features like parlays and live betting have become table stakes across virtually every major operator.
Regulation and Compliance
Operating in the United States means navigating a patchwork of state-level gaming regulators rather than a single national authority. BetMGM holds separate licenses in each state where it operates among them the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the Michigan Gaming Control Board, and the West Virginia Lottery Commission each with its own rules governing advertising, taxation, data security, and player protections. In most jurisdictions, BetMGM operates under a partnership or licensing arrangement with a local casino or tribal gaming entity, a structural requirement in nearly every regulated U.S. state.
This fragmented system creates real compliance complexity: an operator must tailor onboarding flows, promotional rules, and even certain product features on a state-by-state basis. It also means BetMGM, like its competitors, must maintain compliance teams capable of responding quickly as individual states adjust tax rates, advertising restrictions, or licensing terms a recurring theme across the industry as more states reassess their gambling tax structures in light of rapid revenue growth.
Responsible Gambling Measures
As a licensed operator in every state where it does business, BetMGM is required to provide a baseline set of player-protection tools, and it has built these into its platform much like its major competitors. These typically include customizable deposit and wager limits, self-exclusion options ranging from short-term breaks to multi-year or permanent exclusion, account activity statements that let players review their spending and time on the platform, and links to outside support resources such as the National Council on Problem Gambling’s 1-800-GAMBLER helpline.
BetMGM also participates in state-run self-exclusion registries where they exist, which block an excluded individual from every licensed operator in that state rather than just one company’s platform. As regulatory scrutiny of the gambling industry has intensified particularly around advertising practices and the use of promotional bonus offers responsible gambling has become a more prominent part of how operators like BetMGM position themselves publicly, even as the core business remains built around customer acquisition and retention.
Looking Ahead
BetMGM’s story so far is one of disciplined, license-by-license expansion rather than explosive land-grab growth a strategy that has kept it solidly in podium position even as the broader sports betting market consolidates around two larger rivals. Its near-term roadmap points toward deeper investment in iGaming, where it already performs strongly, continued omnichannel integration with MGM’s physical casino business, and international expansion into Canada. Whether that combination is enough to meaningfully close the gap with DraftKings and FanDuel in sports betting remains an open question, but BetMGM’s blend of established brand trust, mature technology, and a loyal casino customer base has proven durable enough to keep it among the handful of operators that matter in the U.S. online gambling market.
This article is for informational purposes only. Market share figures, state availability, and company strategy are subject to change; readers should consult official company filings and state regulatory disclosures for the most current data.
