Long Shot’s OTB on Wednesday announced that it will re-enter the digital sports betting landscape, this time with partner PureWager. Long Shot’s, located in Frederick, Md., and one of a handful of Class B licensees in the state, is partnered with Caesars Sportsbook for retail operations.
For owner Alyse Cohen, this latest attempt to gain a foothold in the digital market, which represents more than 90% of handle and revenue in the state, is a chance to carve out a specialty that the bigger operators like BetMGM, DraftKings, or FanDuel aren’t directly in touch with.
Cohen — who, like other small businesses in Maryland, believed that retail sports betting would help Long Shot’s turn a corner — learned in late 2021 when online wagering went live in Maryland that digital betting is king.
Her OTB initially partnered with England-based BetFred for sports betting operations, but the company exited the U.S. last summer. Long Shot’s shut down down its retail BetFred sportsbook June 9, 2024 and its BetFred-powered digital platform just over a month later. Long Shot’s reopened its in-person sportsbook with Caesar’s as a partner in December 2024, but has been without a digital partner for more than a year. Caesar’s online betting platform is tethered to the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore.
“We want to thrive, not just survive,” Cohen testified at a Maryland house hearing about historical horse racing (HHR) and sweepstakes on March 12. She said handle has dropped 33% since sports betting went online in Maryland in November 2022. In-person betting went live about a year earlier in December 2021. Having HHR machines at Long Shot’s could help the bottom line for smaller gaming businesses.
“We were once hopeful that retail sports betting would provide a much-needed sales boost,” Cohen said. “We’ve instead seen the entirety of sports betting go online.”
Since that hearing, the legal U.S. sports betting industry has been disrupted by prediction markets, which offer a gambling-like alternative via a federal regulator. The state of Maryland is among four that sent cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi, the most well-known prediction market, after it began offering sports event contracts in January. Kalshi responded by suing the state, and the case is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District. Kalshi continues to operate in Maryland after the state agreed to suspend enforcement until after the case is decided.
Go-live date not set
Maryland’s legal betting law requires 5% of ownership in each Class B sportsbook be held by a woman or a minority. The requirement is unusual, though lawmakers in Washington, D.C. also included minority business requirements in their law. Class B licenses are for smaller, retail sportsbooks like Long Shot’s, Riverboat on the Potomac, or Rod ‘n Reel. Of the seven Class B licensees, four have digital partners. The biggest is Fanatics Betting & Gaming, which is partnered with Riverboat on the Potomac.
Long Shot’s, which already has a digital betting license, is aiming to go live online with PureWager late this year or early next, according to Cohen. Her company signed an eight-year deal with PureWager, which earlier this year signed a partnership with investment firm SCCG Management to help manage its North American expansion. PureWager is in the process of applying for an operator’s license in Maryland. Long Shot’s already has a digital operational license due its previous partnership with BetFred.
As a local business, Long Shot’s has a unique insight into the market, similar to BetSaracen in Arkansas, which offers myriad Arkansas-specific promotions for local college teams.
“The hope would be to capture a niche of gaming that is currently not captured in the market place,” Cohen said.
When the platform goes live, Cohen said, it will be PureWager branded.
PureWager brings a proprietary wagering tech stack and its own player account management and iGaming tech stack. In a press release, the company wrote that its mission is to “partner with strong, community-driven enterprises and deliver next-generation sportsbook and iGaming technology across North America.”
