 I'll set. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Today is now January 4th. And this is a public meeting 419. But we are resuming matter that we began yesterday. As we're holding this commission meeting virtually, I'll take a roll call. Good morning, Commissioner O'Brien. Good morning. I'm here. Good morning, Commissioner Hill. Good morning. I'm here. Good morning, Commissioner Skinner. Good morning. I'm here. And good morning, Commissioner Maynard. Good morning. I'm here. Right. So again, we're starting up with public meeting number 419, January 4th. Just a little bit after 10, our apologies at 1012. We have another matter this morning that ran a little long. But we are continuing our review of 10-4 Interactive LLC's request for a category 3 sports wagering license. And we refer to it as Heather given its relationship with Cambridge Park Casino. I want to thank PSI for its presentation yesterday and demonstration of its model. We also were able to hear from our internal experts, GLI, IEB, and RSM on this matter. And we noted at the conclusion of our meeting a couple of matters that need to go forward in the executive session. We decided that we would begin our section by section analysis of the application today. And we serve the opportunity to go to an executive session at the conclusion of that discussion. So with that, we're turning them to I'm looking at both, both agendas here. My apologies. It is number 5 on today's agenda. Okay. So commissioners, I'm just pulling up my documents. My apologies. There we go. Commissioners, we've got your notes ready. Are there any questions with respect to section B of the application? Commissioner Skinner? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. I'm not sure who to direct this question to. I think Mr. Levy. Yeah, I'm going to quarterback. Okay. You talk about there being two application withdrawals. One in New York because another applicant was selected and one in Puerto Rico. But there wasn't a reason given for the Puerto Rico withdrawal. Could you just give us some information about that? Certainly. That was largely driven by a decision on the part of one of our technology partners. We were through that on June 2nd of 2022. Largely a business decision related to the size of the market and one of our partners not really being interested in working with us in that jurisdiction. Any follow-up questions? Not really. You're saying it was largely a business decision. Correct. Yes. Okay. Was it that the partner, can you just elaborate a little bit in terms of? Our sports betting system relies on various components as we talked about yesterday, the player account management system and the risk and trading system. And so all of us as we are working in the rapidly expanding U.S. sports betting landscape have to decide where we're going to allocate resources and the cost and benefit of that. And at the end of the day, the size of the Puerto Rico market turned out to be, was forecast to be less than fulfilling. Thank you. Okay. Other questions for section B? Mr. Maynard, Commissioner Hill, Commissioner O'Brien. I have a question. I'm not sure if it's a matter for a second session and I would want to think a little bit more about it. I think it's all under section B. B-E-NATI. I thought it was interesting and I imagine it's because of the jurisdictions that you work with with respect to your casino business and entertainment that you know that you are in competitive advantage, advantageous position because of multi-year agreements with some of your online sports wagering competitors. So I wondered if you could elaborate on that and how it affects PSI's competitiveness. Do you remember that response? It's in B-3-E, I think, integration with other operators. You said that more precisely, kind of strategically position among its industry competitors entered in multi-year agreements with online sports betting, and you list a number of online. Well, I think, and again, without getting too much into the detail on those agreements, this relates to our skin partnerships. So there's two pieces, Madam Chair, to our three pieces, to our business. There's the retail sports betting businesses that we operate, there's the online businesses that we operate, and then there's a third component which are, because of our extensive land-based presence, we have the opportunity in certain jurisdictions as we have in Massachusetts with two tethered licenses coming out of Plain Ridge Park, where we're going to utilize one, and then we have an agreement with Fanatics with respect to the other one, and those skin partnerships provide Penn as a corporate entity with some financial benefit as a result of the regulatory schemes in various jurisdictions. That's what we're referring to. So that explains Penn Entertainment's competitiveness in terms of PSI. Well, at the end of the day, and again, maybe this is best for executive session because we're going to delve into, from a financial perspective, how PSI and Penn Entertainment operate with respect to skins and the financial arrangement between us and the properties. I think that's right. I'm just curious in terms of, I see it from Penn Entertainment's perspective clearly, so I thought it was interesting to see about it for market purposes. Thank you. So just that would be an expansion, or maybe it was going to be addressed in any case. Thank you. Madam Chan? Yes. So I think you raised an important point for me, because all throughout PSI's application, there are questions answered in Penn's voice. And so I'm just going to need to be educated around what we should expect from PSI as an entity, particularly where we get into the diversity questions later on. I do appreciate the supplemented information you presented yesterday, but can we expect these answers and we'll be more specific, I'm sure, as we go through the application. But I'm hoping we can expect to hear from PSI in terms of a response as its own entity. And certainly Commissioner Skinner, PSI will speak in its own voice, particularly on some of the diversity matters which we shared yesterday. We have the benefit, of course, of being part of the larger Penn organization, and to be able to stand on their shoulders in terms of a lot of the great groundwork that they've, you know, and the foundation that they built PSI being a relatively new part of Penn, you know, only in the last, you know, three or four years. But certainly with respect to our diversity initiatives, there's a lot that PSI does independently. And then there's a lot that we do together, part of broader Penn. Okay, that would be really helpful, really helpful as you think about that as we go along. Commissioner, as I'll set them with Section B, should we move on to Section C? Or Commissioner Maynard, I see you leaning in. Also, I have a question for C. Okay. But I had a question on B also. Okay, Commissioner. I'll defer to Brad. Okay, Commissioner Hill. Commissioner O'Brien, I was about to move forward that B had met expectations. So I think your question would be appropriate at this time. Okay. I just, I want to talk a little bit more, I guess, or hear a little bit more about the reference to the strategic partnership with Barstool as it relates to PSI. I mean, I know we talked a lot about this connection with Penn in December. Is there anything different, one way or the other, from what was discussed with Penn in connection with the strategic partnership that PSI has with Barstool Sports Inc? I know Commissioner O'Brien. So it's the same relationship? Correct. And the same thing in terms of PSI and, okay. Yeah. I'll hold the other show later. Thanks. Okay. So with that said, we'll move along. But Commissioner Hill is reminding me that we want, I need to make sure to take our temperature with respect to B. Do we feel that this section met our expectations with respect to the standards that Councillor Grosven laid out yesterday? Commissioner Hill. And I feel that they did meet expectations for Section B. Others? I agree. Same. I agree. I'm just going back to my notes. I'm sorry. B1D talks about it asks for the information around the intention to limit participation in an ELL sports events. So I didn't have that answered. And so I'm going to say the section meets expectations provided we do get a satisfactory response to that question. Could you repeat the question, Commissioner Skinner? B1D intention to limit participation in any allowable sports events. So if you could supplement the application with that answer, that'd be great. I think we can ask that to be supplemented right here if that's okay. Commissioner Skinner? It is. Mr. Levy, do you want to address that? So it was in B1D, it's about the limiting the science of the events. And I might have it. I could just be missing it, but I took notes and I don't have it. So if I am missing it, I apologize. No problem. Yeah, I think, you know, again, we, I believe this is answered in the application and we can circle back on that. But our intention would be to offer a full complement of allowable sporting events and wagering markets consistent with whatever is permitted by the commission. And I would add, of course, sir, our statute. Yeah. Correct. All right. Thank you for putting that on the record, Mr. Levy. All right. So with that, Commissioner Skinner, are you more comfortable? I am. Meets expectations. Thank you. Okay. Excellent. I'm just also looking at my notes. You covered so much yesterday. I want, I want to, again, on a conference thorough presentation yesterday. Okay. Then moving on to section C questions. Commissioner? Commissioner Maynard? I just wanted to confirm, and I think I read it this way, on C5B01 that you will integrate with the lottery per the way the PIN is integrating with the lottery. PSI is going to follow the same path. Correct? So Commissioner Maynard, we're certainly open to discussions with the lottery. I think the retail integration that happens at Plain Ridge Park is fantastic. Obviously, there's some nuances about how that relationship would get translated into the online space, but we certainly are open to any discussion and collaboration with the lottery. Mr. Levy, I think that's the, I think that's the request, and what the commission has decided is that you would have conversations with the lottery. Absolutely. Madam Chair? Yes. So I think I'm going to just make one big comment slash question, and it has to do with the entirety of section C. What I think I'm seeing, and it's happening throughout all the applications, is the proposed positions that we had, I think the state had hoped we would see an increase in positions. A lot of that is going to be dictated what happens in the physical plant, not necessarily with PSI. So we're not seeing additional employees necessarily with your company, but more importantly, what may happen to Plain Ridge. Is that an accurate statement? I think Commissioner Hill, with respect to us in particular, there's two opportunities. One is certainly at Plain Ridge, but the other is, as we noted in our presentation yesterday, we have a game studio that we operate in Greenfield, where we have 27 employees. They produce our bespoke iCasino content. So while we're not offering the iCasino content in Massachusetts, we're leveraging that in our four other jurisdictions in the United States and in Ontario. So there is certainly, and that's certainly an area where we're continuing to invest, and that's a high growth area for us. So we would anticipate investing in our, continuing to invest in our people and seeing that growth, both at Plain Ridge and in our game studio in the Commonwealth. But it's safe to say that the revenues that we're going to see once sports betting is in place, it's going to be more revenues from wagering revenues than it is from increased employees. As relates to sports betting specifically, it will be wagering. I think the other important element for us to point out, that's unique a little bit to Penn, is that our omnichannel approach to sports betting and to wagering in general, what we've seen in some other jurisdictions is significant growth in our core younger demographic, that 21 to 44 demographic, we've seen that grow over the last year, year and a half. It's doubled the theo of that group as we look to drive our online players into the physical environment. And so that's something that we'll be doing in Massachusetts as well. So it benefits both the Commonwealth from a direct sports betting perspective, but also from growth at Plain Ridge in that core growth demographic, which is something we're particularly excited about. And I think to Commissioner Skinner's point, a lot of the application has us take a look at the Category 1 app. So in regards to community engagement, it says take a look at Category 1 application, not this application. Community involvement is something we care about here in Massachusetts. Obviously, Plain Ridge does a phenomenal job in that. Do you want to talk about this a little bit more about community engagement? Absolutely. And I think what we've seen in other jurisdictions where we operate, particularly where we have retail properties, is we're able to leverage a lot of the great work that they've done and then come on top of that and supplement that with our own work with community organizations, whether that's working with small businesses around VIP events that we're planning, local grassroots marketing events. So while we do like to leverage a lot of the work that our properties have done, we certainly do stand on our own two feet and engage in the communities we operate as Penn Sports Interactive. Let me just highlight during your presentation, I know you brought up STEM, which is in my other life, STEM was a big issue for me. So I would hope and ask that you continue down that road when it comes to the Commonwealth. That's a big issue here in Massachusetts and we see it increasing either through funding for the state, through private entities. And I was thrilled to see that in your presentation because that is a great program and a great roadway for so many young people to get into those fields here in Massachusetts. Where we are a leader by the way. Yeah, listen absolutely and we do a lot of great recruiting coming out of some of the amazing colleges and universities that you guys have in the Commonwealth. We have a robust co-op program where we bring in students for work terms and it's a great pipeline for us as a business. Madam Chair, I think those are all my C questions. Thank you. I just would like to follow up a bit. Mr. Ledy, you wouldn't mind. I had no idea it was a question about the Greenfield offices. You did expound a little bit yesterday. So you just said they're 27 employees. Can you just elaborate a little bit on who works there and what talent you're looking at with skill set? Because I would see that as an opportunity that could be built on time. So building on Commissioner Hill's comment on STAM those that they are software engineers and product designers largely who are working to create these, our iCasino branded, the graphic designers who are working to create these iCasino games. So it is certainly in line and in keeping with the STEM focus and that area. And that's all iCasino? That is correct. That is all iCasino. It's a game studio that we purchased a couple of years ago and that's been an area we've been investing in. Yeah. Now when you said that, now it's all coming clear to me. Okay. And so that's another opportunity in community engagement. It's obviously through a different avenue than later before us on, but those are important jobs. And this opportunity out in Western Massachusetts for to draw from the College and University group out there. And to your earlier point, we have been always so very, very pleased with TPCs, our level of community engagement language. So we know that you'll build up on that. And then my, I've mentioned this in other meetings. And I suspect Mr. Pearl has noted that we were all very impressed by his, his record keeping yesterday. But it's, I think an opportunity for you as a online sports wagering operator to go into the community and to this is across the Commonwealth, local establishments. And, you know, I do think there's an opportunity for community engagement, moderate engagement there, and also engagement with minority and women owned businesses. So you know, we, we see that as an opportunity for your market cultivation, your, your patron cultivation, and then just opportunities for community engagement and really enrichment in those areas. So thank you. We agree entirely, Madam Chair. Right. And, and we would look forward to those reports. Again, as I said, we are probably so pleased with PPCs reporting on its community engagement. Okay. Other questions for C? So Mr. Levy, just to clarify, employment opportunities within the Commonwealth, do you not expect to add any additional positions as a result of sports wagering? I don't have anything for C1 in its entirety. The entire piece is missing. I did also look on our internal shared drive and I don't, I don't have that there either. So I don't, I mean, could you speak to that question? Sure. I think with respect to sports wagering specifically, we operate out of, you know, out of offices in Philadelphia and Toronto. We do allow flexible work across the United States and Canada. And so to the extent that we are able to, you know, and we are constantly hiring. So there are, there are opportunities for growth across our business, specific to, and there's a great talent pool, obviously, in the Commonwealth that, that, that's available to us. So I think it really is three prongs. It's across our business for perhaps some remote work. It's Penn Game Studios, and it's also some related to Plain Ridge Park as well, and hiring that will, and growth that will come out of our retail sports betting operations. Any other questions on C? Commissioner O'Brien or Commissioner Maynard? Yeah, I don't have any other questions, but I am going to ask that PSI supplement, that section, C1, unless, unless, you know, my team tells me that I am missing something. It does not appear to be in the shared drive, and it's not in my paper copy either. The entirety of C1? Commissioner Skinner or some? Yeah, I don't have anything for C1 at all. Okay. I mean, I'm looking at the PDF version of C1A, and I see an answer, and I'm seeing answers to C1B, so. Yeah, it depends on what version you're using. I'm going on the shared drive, and I think when I was made people copies, that's what they used, and not the PDF, so. I will say if you go into shared and go to the PDF, the answers to C are, in fact, in there. Okay, thank you, Commissioner O'Brien. Yeah, I do want to say I had the same questions about the employees in Greenfield, so I'm happy to hear that they're, you know, we don't offer that, but I'm happy to hear there are some jobs out in Western Mass. I think that's great, right? Right? Yeah. Yeah. In that field. So just to clarify, so I can get my bearing here, is the complete redacted apple? No, it's not redacted. No, it's the 12-12-22 uploaded PSI PDF. Okay, there we go. Combine. You will be able to pull Steve in there. Thank you. Other questions about Commissioner Skinner's ideas? Okay, so we'll take the temperature on C with the idea, Commissioner Skinner, that I think that they've reported on their numbers. I think we can, going forward, Mr. Levy, I'm sure that to the extent you can learn whether or not some Commonwealth employees hear about the business here and end up working remotely, that would be great reporting for us to know. Yeah, we would be happy to report on that. Right. And if you decide to open up offices in the Commonwealth, we'll be happy to hear that too. Thank you. Commissioner Skinner, I don't want to push you. Do you want to, can I take your general temperature now with a caveat? Yeah. Yeah. And I still can't find that information. I'm in that version of the document in the shared drive and it's just not there. So I'm not sure what is happening. But if you go into the 12-12 PDF and go down, I think C starts at page 95. Page 95. So why do I have C2A at page 31? That's weird. I'm sure it's user error. So please proceed, Madam Chair. User error. Commissioner Skinner, it's a little bit on the spot. You're allowed to, it's a little challenge. We have a lot of documents, but I do want you to get comfortable. Perhaps maybe the best way, Karen, is to just have the link directly given to Commissioner Skinner so that she's looking at the same document. I don't know if Jacqueline or Judy or... Yeah, I'll figure that out. So you want a link to the PSI PDF of the full thing in one document. Okay. I'll take care of that. Yeah. I'm definitely not looking at the right document. Not looking at the same one where Commissioner O'Brien is looking at page 95, Section C. Just so the public understands, we have all the information. Each of us are choosing to review in different fashions because we all think and learn in different ways. So we've been very patient with the applicants being responsive to our request for different formats. And I also just want to point out that I don't believe there are many responses in this application that were directed to the original PEN, but the C5 definitely did do that. And that I noted, Commissioner, they did sometimes use PEN and PI and PSI interchangeably, but I didn't find that we had to keep on, we weren't referenced back frequently to another application just in, I think, my notes just in the C5. And I think we've heard a pretty complete answer to that now, Commissioner Hill. Yes. Taking your temperature then. Are you satisfied with? My temperature is that C has met expectations. Same. Okay. Same. Thank you. And Commissioner Skinner, you get to get it qualified as you catch up that we would move on. Yes. Okay. And then I'll double back on that because we'd like to have a full consensus on this. Okay. Then moving on to Section D. Questions? Commissioner O'Brien? I guess, I don't know if Commissioner Skinner, I know she had questions and they said they were going to talk in more depth about specifics on PSI in this category. I'm wondering if we can start off with even talking about the Greenfield location and what you can tell us, if anything, about the diversity there? And I'm hesitant to ask my questions because I don't have the version that everyone else is looking at. So, you know, there are things in this section that I thought was missing that very well might not be. Commissioner Skinner, you're going to be asking relevant questions because it's in ours too. So, it's absolutely fair for you to ask that. It's just fair. There might be an omission. It might have been rolled into the other version somehow without the section uploaded the first time. So, I don't know if does anybody have an answer to that question though in terms of can anyone give us stats on the Greenfield location? Commissioner O'Brien, we don't have specific stats at our fingertips on the 27 employees in Greenfield or the stats that we have presented yesterday are for our Interactive Division at large. Okay. And that's nationally? That is nationally, yes. Okay. I did have another follow-up question on diversity, but it was more the diversity vendors. I think on page one, I'm going to refer to the PDF 125. And when I'm looking at, let me get the relevant section. It looks like D2A1. Supplier spend. I think you make a reference to PSI as a national online gaming operator is limited in the diverse vendors that are available to support the operation and related products and services. Could you expand upon that representation? For sure. Why do you think nationally you would have less access to diversity? Well, as a technology-led business, our core area of focus out of the gate over the last three years has been the area where we can make the biggest impact which has been in our people and our workforce. And we've spent a lot of time and energy on how do we increase opportunities in what's been an industry where there's historical underrepresentation in technology and in sports. So we've spent a lot of time there. We think we're doing a great job there. We have more work to do, obviously, but we're off to a very good start. From a vendor perspective, it's, we're a little bit challenged in the sense that most of our vendors and most of our vendors spend are on, you know, with large, you know, national or multinational organizations when you think about payment processors, casino content suppliers, KYC vendors who are operating with us on a national and quite frankly an international scale. So we do have a lot of work to do on the supplier diversity side. We're starting to make inroads on that. That's an area where it really benefits us to have the relationship with Penn because we can stand on their shoulders, leverage a lot of the programs that they've implemented at the properties across the country. That's where you'll start to see us start to have the biggest impact in supplier diversity will be, you know, at the local level. It will be on, you know, with suppliers for events and things like we're doing in Maryland where we partnered with Saundry Productions, Minority Owned Business to help run our local marketing efforts. So that's where you'll see us lean in over the course of the next year or two years. And we'll be working with PPC to share their best practices because they do great work in that area. Can I follow up on that Madam Chair? Yes. So Commissioner Skinner and the rest of the question, we have attached conditions on goals and I looked through the documents pretty closely and I saw some numbers and I'm not going to reveal those numbers but I saw them. I did not see any specific goals. That's right Commissioner Maynard. I think this is an area where we're learning and growing we know it's an area of focus for us but to set a specific, we think it's probably a little bit premature for us to set a dollar threshold or percentage of spend threshold just because of how rapidly this is all changing and evolving and growing but it is definitely an area of focus for us and as you heard yesterday from my colleague Justin who talked about us actually engaging a diversity vendor strategist. This is something that is important to us across the business and will be a key area of focus and how we grow that year on year is what we're looking to do. I appreciate that. I will say that it's really difficult because I have voted to attach conditions to see goals on other applicants. I can't very well change that now at least in my perspective so I would want to condition anything I do today on seeing some goals because we can't hold any applicant to a standard if we don't know what their standard is so that's where I'm coming from on this one. I certainly appreciate the point Commissioner Maynard and I think we'd be willing to work with the Commission to figure out what an appropriate goal is and then to report on that I think just where we're sitting today it requires a little bit of work to get to a thoughtful goal that is achievable but we're willing to work with Commission and Commission staff to do that. I agree with Commissioner Maynard. I'm sorry Madam Chair. I was just going to say Commissioner Maynard it might be helpful too for you to share that there are state resources too right that help PSI in setting those standards like OSD other offices that are very very very well versed have been expanding in this area exponentially so Commissioner Skinner your point. I was just stating that I agree with Commissioner Maynard but I do think that my concern goes beyond the supplier diversity aspect I would also be looking to have PSI introducibles relative to diversifying its workforce. And I think Commissioner Skinner I would respond in the same way I think we're willing to work with the Commission and Commission staff to to establish a reasonable baseline and then to fit you know we're going to continue our efforts to grow that and we can report on that to the Commission on a periodic basis. Follow-up on on Section Z and diversity Mr. Levy. I know that Pan Entertainment's board and its corporate governance is very successful in its diversity and I look at this Chamberlain and note that PSI I'm not really sure if I saw much on your on its corporate governance is it just a few officers and it really goes all the way up to anything. Correct yes so we're a wholly owned sub so I mean we have a nominal board and its number of senior officers but ultimately we roll up to the to the Penn senior team. And in the number of employees that you have right now on a nationwide basis. So across all across all of the interactive division we have a little under 1200 employees. So PSI and so if I'm if I read the application correctly really the DEI program I think it's a committee forgive me because I'm now having read too many applications. Is that the top level of Penn Entertainment does that Aaron does that include does that go down into the subsidiaries too so you have representation all the way through the organization or is it pretty much at the Penn Entertainment level. Hey Benji you mind if I jump in on this one. Thanks Justin. Thank you Madam Chair you'll be happy to know the diversity committee is comprised of team members of also from interact interactive. So when we make decisions about the direction of what we want to do focus on what's important to the team members we their voice is included and we also break off and do specific interactive activities at one point they were doing monthly diversity meetings and listening committee meetings where you just shut up and listen and see what's important to people and what we should be working on as a as a company and as pen interactive as an organization specifically. So they are covered and that rolls up to Jay our CEO and the board ultimately we report out on all diversity initiatives for the company. And forgive me Mr. Carter because I think did I understand yesterday you had that up that diversity committee are you the lead on that or you're on it. Yes Madam Chair. Yeah so my point is I think you addressed it is that there may not be as formal of a structure at PSI's level but I'm hearing that you are going into into the 1200 employees and there's an opportunity there to have your own level of DEI work going on for your employees. So and Madam Chair to be clear there we do have our own level of DEI work going on across the PI organization focused on recruitment and mentorship and opportunities for growth. I think Justin's point was as far as formal diversity committees go we have one at Penn that encompasses Penn corporate the properties have representation Penn interactive has representation but certainly just like at Penn each property will have its own do be doing its own diversity work as part of the broader umbrella at Penn interactive we are doing our own diversity work. You know as we talked about particularly on the employee side and how we grow representation of women in technology jobs and a diverse workforce in technology. Right and that would get to Commissioner Skinner's point for the goals on the workforce. Yes and if I may add to Madam Chair that same kind of structure and thought process applies to the WLP program so it's integrated at Penn interactive as well but as Benji just articulated it functions a little bit almost like a separate property what where they have some of their own events and then they ladder into the larger organization as well so I'm very similar as to the diversity committee. Thank you and I'm sure that that's that's all reflected in the application and I feel like I got that I just wanted to make sure we all understood that it is going down. Thank you. Okay Madam Chair I'm sorry if I if I may just add one other thing it's not actually in the application but was in the presentation yesterday so I wanted to call out that the numbers in the way that commission is used to looking at them with regards to PSI 27 percent of the team members identify as diverse 27 percent of our female about two and a half percent meet the veteran qualification and 30 percent of women are in management roles or 30 percent of management roles are filled by women so that was not in the additional in the original application that is broken out for specificity in the presentation from yesterday. Yeah I took it down in my notes but I think Commissioner Skinner so that would be reporting on the actual numbers and Commissioner Skinner was hoping to see some goals which you are very familiar with that Commissioner Skinner are you all set on that Ben? I am all set thank you. Okay great and I do think in my notes reflect yesterday too Commissioner Maynard's question that I always like a good dose of humility and you did say work needs to be done with respect to supplier diversity and that was noted so thank you. Okay other questions on diversity? Okay anything else Commissioner? Madam Chair I would just just add I hope everybody is hearing us loud and clear that this is a big issue for us and moving forward we look forward if you are granted this license working with you but this is a huge issue for this commission. Understood. Okay then Commissioner Hill I'll start with you. So I am looking at section D and I believe it met expectations. Okay Commissioner O'Brien. Same. Commissioner Maynard. With the caveat that we get additional information yes it met expectations. And we could do that through a condition? Yes. Okay Commissioner Skinner. And I'm on board with that including what we discussed here today in a condition. Okay great. All right then we'll move on to E and I will acknowledge that your presentation was very strong on this and we appreciate that so thank you. Commissioner's individual questions. I want to start this off with the same thing I was really impressed by the level of detail on the work that the company has done in the RG area. I do however want to reiterate I have the same concerns I expressed when we talked about Penn and the relationship with Barstool and the branding when we were here in December. And specifically I want to circle back to something that was commented on yesterday where you talked about looking at the social media content and that you monitor the gambling content constantly but no one commented on whether and to what extent you monitor the other content that may speak to not only RG but and a little bit this goes into suitability but just the other content that might be impacting the branding of Barstool and PSI. Certainly the monitoring Commissioner O'Brien is focused because that's the nature of the relationship as it exists today on gaming content and RG specifically. As the relationship expands as Barstool comes in house they are then part of Penn and we'll be monitoring all the content that they produce but as of today the core area focus for us is on RG and on gaming specifically. So at present you're restricting it to that then there's no monitoring anything that goes beyond. We obviously do see most of the content that Barstool puts out but the most active and intense monitoring is around our guardrails and relates to RG and gaming content specifically. And I want to circle back to something else that was mentioned in some of the functionality but also in responsible gaming. Out of curiosity you referenced PayPal being a potential source of payment for accounts and obviously credit cards aren't going to be allowed in the Commonwealth. My understanding was PayPal didn't allow payments into betting accounts so can someone just speak to me about the role of the PayPal funding account? PayPal does permit funding into betting accounts but we do work with them to restrict credit card funding like the secondary funding via credit card PayPal so that is something we work with them on. Okay and I think just to reiterate again I do have the same concerns as last week and we're talking about conditions that we've already talked about to me the responsible gaming component particularly when it comes to and I realized this is not your control at this point and then February Penn will have the ultimate control but the condition about making sure that no one under 21 is going to the Barstool college football shows I just wanted to reiterate that that would be something I would want carried over. It would by extension obviously be Tethered to Penn but I want to make sure that that's carried over to this as well. Yes Commissioner we're prepared to accept those same conditions. Thanks for the questions for on section E. I have one that I just really wanted to hear a little bit more of our variation on and that's about Sand Desk. It's a customer service tool and I know to say that PI responsible gaming has crafted as an automatic response for risk and player experience to use when they encounter a potential responsible gaming situation so should just explain that in a little bit more depth and I may have missed Zendesk being articulated yesterday. So Zendesk is our customer service platform and as you saw Trey demonstrate yesterday when there's interaction right so when there's interactions by the patron the first thing they'll see is some frequently asked questions and so some of those may relate to RG and provide instant access to RG resources. There's also kind of tools on the backend inside of Zendesk that our CS team can leverage as they're dealing with a patron interaction so Zendesk. That's cool and I great I just had missed it yesterday and I figured that was it wasn't something in addition. Other questions and I'll look at my notes. Commissioner that was just a clarifier from me. Madam Chair just a kudos for section E2 H01 I really appreciated how in depth it was learning about these promo styles so very nice while we're in the kudos because of my position of Ryan I noted many concerns about mine was really restricted to responsible gaming and I am doing my own personal research as well and I also appreciate the application linked us to the RG media programs and I think my notes say that there was a six-month paid Twitter campaign advertising the responsible gaming. I wondered about the timing and then I wondered about will you extend it. Certainly in terms of our commitment to responsible gaming that will continue. We're going to continue to invest resources in both the creation of responsible gaming content and how we amplify that on social media so I think what a lot of that was referring to was how we actually not just use organic channels but we actually will pay to push out that messaging to paid channels on social to amplify that and we will continue that. And the initial trial was to see if it was impactful and we did like the results and we're going to continue that. Right and we're going to hear more from that on the results I know through IEB's work but I did want to know that I thought that I think there were three sites that you gave us and it was Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Yeah exactly those would be the principal social channels and since we started the campaign to amplify we have seen an uptick in usage of RG tools which to us is a sign that it's working. Great. The other thing I noted too is you have a 12 million dollar marketing budget and this is in of course in our responsible gaming which I think seemed not the lowest but seem lower. Do you and I think maybe you're I'm really looking for your understanding behind your your marketing dollars that may be in the zone so we can defer to the I mean without getting into too much detail we talk publicly about this all the time our strategy and our integrated media and gaming strategy is different from what you'll see from a large number of our competitors where you know you will see a much larger marketing line from them and you know where you're going to see blasting on the airwaves with every second commercial and I know that's something that the gaming commission is going to consider we take a bit of a different approach and rely much more on organic content and our media integrations both in the United States and Canada and you know find it to be you know more effective from that perspective and so that's why when you're looking at our financial submission that reflects all the way through in terms of how much we supplement our organic activities with paid marketing. My apologies if I use the number without my second cup of coffee. So can I just have a follow-up on that when you say organic because this is an interesting issue right when we think about it from responsible gaming what innovations can be made to supplant the just the deluge of marketing as it was as it was used at the beginning of sports. It's a very interesting question listen it's a very interesting question I mean our view is you have to be product led and you have to give kind of this extends back you know my history 20 years in the sports media business you have to provide customers with a reason to actively choose to engage with your business every day and that's led by delivering an industry leading product and an industry leading experience and industry leading customer service the marketing is a supplement to that you know if your business is based on leading with marketing that to us isn't the right approach you lead with product and you lead with experience and in the long run that's what creates sustainable differentiation and competitive advantage and so that that's how we think about it that's how we approach it and then that that's how you know that that's what you see reflected in in our marketing plans and in our financial model very helpful thank you very much other questions on section B just a follow-up question on what you've talked about in terms of the responsible gaming tools do you can you just highlight what if anything you do to sort of push people to open those and use those like how do you track if things are working not working in terms of so I think you know one of the most important tools Commissioner O'Brien is how we surface those to our patrons and and let them know they exist and that happens right at you know onboarding to frequent email communications to what they might be on social channels where they are engaging with us and and other content the time check that you saw yesterday you know that that's a mandatory feature of our platform so it really is all encompassing and it's it's kind of it's foundationally built into what we do it's not slapped on top of it as an afterthought rg starts at the product level and extends all the way through communications to our patrons and it has to be easy to use which we we make these tools very very user-friendly for our patrons and do you have a do you gauge which ones are most used serve it for you to track which ones are most effective or most used certainly certainly we do I think the you know the limits are are are quite useful the deposit limit is by far the most useful one that we see you know and you know it's a balance between providing patrons with a wide variety of options but also you know it's like it's like as you're designing any product you have to make sure you're not inundating them with too much choice and they get paralyzed and they don't know which one you know is appropriate for them to use so that that's something we try and balance as well and do you have any stats on who might who's been enrolled your users percentage or raw numbers just out of curiosity I believe and team keep me honest here that up to 10% of our users have have leveraged a responsible gaming tool aside from obviously the mandatory check-ins that everybody has to use thank you commissioners other questions on section E hearing none should I take our temperature on this section I'll turn to commissioner hill I believe they met expectations for section E thank you commissioner Maynard I agree mr. Skinner I agree great and commissioner brian um subject to the condition I discussed earlier that was on pen as well okay um then we'll move on to section app and I again just reiterate my gratitude for yesterday's full-sum presentation it was it was um interesting and complete so thank you um let's go then to that already questions anyone leaning in I'm just looking at my notes okay I know that we are going to probably hear a little bit FMG in executive sessions um I my first notes are a compliment do you want to hear I said that I thought it was an excellent account of wager acceptance and in F3A1 and F3B1 a suspicious wagering activity very helpful in its explanation and education for me and completeness for you um another question commissioners I'm looking at my notes and not looking up I don't care just for the record um any questions I had around the Aristotle and can be systems were answered earlier to the tethered applicant so just want to note that for the record and yesterday's presentation was also really helpful that the diagram that we saw I think it was reiterated and it's very helpful so thank you I did have one question and maybe this isn't this is just I don't not knowing the industry but can be chooses I think the application says and if I'm going to say something just stop me with a verbal chooses not to offer a certain number of events per day where they can't guarantee the integrity and they're blocked is the term that was used so you know that will typically be because can be is operating a global business um you know perhaps lower level sports leagues low level tennis matches um you know certain things like that where um they may have an integrity concern related to the underlying event itself and it may exist it may not exist but out of an abundance of caution um they will decide based on the information that's been made available to them from their various monitoring partners around the globe that you know prudence would say we're not going to offer that event and you know that that's a collaborative discussion between us and them and the number you offered you also um offered I think I can say that you're offering number because I I think we talked about that before um is that the block number is of the the thousands that are offered yes it wasn't it's not very many is that it's not a large number correct and is that so that's average for the industry yeah yeah I'm asking that because I think it's may inform may help inform me as we think about the offerings ourselves so yeah just for that other questions for section I think we're all very familiar now that the integrity monitoring um more thickets done so no questions commissioners okay pressure hill start with you how do you feel about that uh met expectations thank you commissioner maynard do you have met expectations okay pressure skinner I agree thank you commissioner brian I agree okay and I'm all set thank you so we'll go on to G and I do know that um um this is also where many questions will be answered in the second session does anybody have any individual questions on G commissioner brian again I I still have the concerns that I have in terms of the branding with barstool sports Inc and what is now even more of a strong branding because you are the the barstool connection on the branding connection back to pen and to sports betting in massachusetts um I you know won't repeat what we all hashed out in december other than I would also want the same condition on this moving forward um you know assuming that we come out of executive session with some of the other questions that I have you know satisfactorily answered um my anticipation would be the same thing that I would want the condition for cooperation with ivy for a without limitation on a full-sum investigation of the branding efforts of barstool Inc in connection with the branding of pen and psi yeah thank you commissioner brian as I mentioned before we're absolutely um willing to have that condition apply great all my other questions I think madam chair more for executive session as discuss answer thank you commissioner other questions for g all right uh commissioner hill mad expectations madam chair okay i would like to defer to the executive session is done before we circle back to this since we're talking about multiple topics in there that relate to this okay mr hill is that fine with you of course okay commissioner maynard and kush just going to swing back after the second session that sounds fine madam chair if if i may um i am all set with section c i believe i was alone hold out for that part of it so i am voicing for the record um that i uh believe that that section meets expectation thank you i was going to circle back um after making sure you had a chance so thank you um good then i think um mr grossman we had a chance to go to the sections um individual sections it's um 1118 um i want to just discuss our the rest of our day briefly um i know that there are three of us who have um challenges at the end at the end of the afternoon not the end of the day um and i want to be fully transparent that i would like i have been invited as a former senior staff member of governor breakers to attend event in advance of his own walk and in order for me to make it i would have to leave here at 330 um so uh my goal is that we've worked you know we have our breaks and everything and other commissioners agree i would attend that um otherwise i'll just attend the event tonight which would be nice but it would be also nice to see my former colleagues mr maynard i i um i was invited as a former senior staff member to the governor to the same event um i would also like to attend um i can't walk as quick as the chair so you know i would like maybe you know 20 minutes after instead of 30 minutes after but um uh i'm i'm um excited to see my colleagues if if we can get through our business um that's in front of us right if we can get through our business and then commissioner maynard and i had a chance to exchange notes we never worked together but we each served governor baker for years so i'm very honored to be included in this this um uh end of his term and i know um commissioner hill you also um followed me about um a hard stop for you a little bit later in the afternoon so um commissioners what we could do is um have a short break now before going into the second session if we'd like and then um perhaps we'll be able to depending on timing finish up with this particular applicant and um have a lunch break and then begin the next uh um presentation we do have tomorrow reserved it may go longer when this i have to i think the invitation came to us during christmas break so i couldn't anticipate it um so i'm bringing it up today uh because it occurred to me would probably be nice to attend uh so um commissioners the commissioner o'brien commissioner skinner i turn to you first uh break now um before executive session and then how do you feel about the rest of the afternoon as outlined that's fine to take a break now i stupid we're not in the office commissioner skinner you and i could go take our own walk i was gonna say i i would only agree to this if i get an invitation no i think it's it's absolutely fine i will say um unfortunately that tomorrow i have a commitment at three so i could not extend my day beyond the two o'clock's uh end time that's currently scheduled for tomorrow okay well hopefully we'll be able to be all finished out by three tomorrow so thank you uh commissioner hill how does that feel for you that's good thank you so um now we have to talk about executive session uh councillor grossman seems the uh the best approach that we've made use of in the past is to just be clear as to what issues the commission would like to discuss in the executive session i've been keeping a list um and i'm happy to walk through it and let's if we can try to refine it to make sure um we're all of the same mind the first issue um relates to the indiana matter from september of 2021 uh the settlement agreement that was discussed uh yesterday mr spriano provided uh some factual context um there was a request um to hear a little bit more about the any specific changes relative to the company's internal control procedures relative to social media postings and consequences um for operating outside of those controls and if that is if i have that accurate uh it seems to me that that would meet the standard and that that would be a competitively sensitive piece of information that would place the applicant at a competitive disadvantage if discussed publicly so that is that's issue number one i'm happy to keep going and if anyone if i have any of this incorrect or imprecise please jump right in so number two is the matter out of the state of illinois um there was um a complaint filed i don't want to get into too much detail um attorney co represented to us that within the state of illinois um the matter is confidential and the documents are not subject to public disclosure i have reviewed the documents um and i'm satisfied that they are specifically implicate matters of personal privacy um and if discussed publicly um would tend to violate the the privacy interest of the individuals who are discussed in those documents and for that reason um the commission i it's my opinion may move into executive session uh to discuss that under it's the exception and to the public records law in conjunction with um it is i'm just pulling up the executive session statute i think it's it's section seven seven twenty six c so it's 21 a seven which is to act under the authority of a general or special law so that's it's a different provision of the law than section six i that we've been talking about under chapter 23 and but it is covered nonetheless so that that's the second matter the third matter relates to essentially financial um um information uh related to the evaluations performed by i rsm um and my notes indicate specifically uh that the matters of interest uh revolve around the market share of projections um certain revenue projections related to the five year projections and the the whole percentages associated there with um i i just want to make sure i have that right and that i'm not uh narrowing that part of it too much but that was my uh recollection of the discussion okay number four um and i only i'm sorry i only i think i caught this but i'm not in great detail um there was some question raised as to the arrangement um relative to the operation of the skins is that did i have that part right as well so i that was an issue i raised and i think perhaps our assembly will raise it indirectly but i think was to leave you will just shed some light on that it's really a market share and competitiveness um uh question with respect to ps i's position that being the mr levy is that your understanding of my my question it sounds like you are looking for information relating to our our skin partner arrangements and that was certainly would be a uh a competitiveness concern yes competitive yeah okay yeah so speaking about the skin partner arrangements um similar to the prior discussion about the financial evaluations would similarly fall under section six and that they are both um competitively sensitive pieces of information for which the disclosure would place the applicant at a competitive disadvantage this public so that's uh three and four uh number five um is specific to the uh branding arrangement relative to barstool sports um and um that relates uh i believe to the suitability components as well as to the advertising and marketing pieces uh do if that's correct is that everyone's understanding as well okay i think that's right and okay so um that being the case um there are elements of both uh section six i and uh potentially exemption and the privacy interest piece as well so um i believe those are covered under um the executive session provisions of the law by way of other provisions of the general law those were the five um areas that i uh took note of i i don't have anything else and if those are the five then the commission may um comfortably in my opinion move into executive session to discuss those issues so taht to be clear uh chapter 30a section 21a7 and 23n section six i are both implicated and uh gl chapter 4 section 726n is implicated but not uh chapter four section 726c that uh no uh we also implicated for um the privacy issue right yes so let me i'm sorry yeah i think i got it right so it's all of them yeah i think i'm sorry i said and i meant see um it's it's not it's not in my apologies yeah it's you have that right so um it's so 726 and does not get implicated there's no public safety first no it's not a cyber security issue okay great all right commissioners you know that um part of our going into executive session will require a vote and i'm required to read this into the record commission anticipates that it may meet an executive session in conjunction with its review of the pen sports interactive LLC application according to the general laws chapter 30a and section 21a subsection 7 and gl chapter 23n section 6 subsection i to consider information submitted by the applicant in the course of its application for an operator license that is a trade secret competitively sensitive or proprietary in which it disclosed publicly would place the applicant at a competitive disadvantage and or chapter general laws chapter 4 section 7 subsection 26c the privacy exemption to consider information submitted in the application materials related to named individuals the disclosure of which may constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal crimes with that do i have a motion ma'am sure i move that we go into executive session for the reasons just stated by yourself and general counsel on the record second thank you any questions we'll talk about timing right after this commissioner hill as a special grant excuse me hi commissioner hill hi commissioner skinner hi commissioner maynard hi and i vote yes so five zero to go into executive session and i think i do need to say to the public that the public session of the commission meeting will reconvene at the conclusion of the executive session it just may be we'll alert you as to timing should lunch be involved commissioners do we need a break before we go into executive session i think the invites need to go out or mr levy do you know if your team has received an invitation or mr granzel madam chair i yet have not okay so crystal and karen if you could make sure that they receive an invite to a different virtual platform we'll meet in that room why don't we plan on meeting in 10 minutes 1140 does that make sense commissioners okay 1140 you should have your invitations by then and then we'll just meet in that room and this this will stay open even though we will leave it it will stay open for the public for the screensaver explaining that very nice okay and thank you everyone thank you thank you okay Dave thank you thanks Dave i think we can take down the screensaver now thank you okay i see that the full commission back this is a reconvening of the master's of scamming commission public meeting number 419 and today's January 4th we just acquitted our executive session we appreciate the conversations we had and the guidance of our general counsel and we are now returning to our agenda item and that would be number seven if the commission would like to consider whether we can move ahead with our determination process led by council grossman do you feel comfortable with that juncture i think we wanted to go back and take our temperature on perhaps f and g if we did find a meets we've had executive sessions to inform both with respect to f any reconsideration or are we still okay with meets when i see a nodding from commissioner brian thumbs up from and commissioner hill thank you now for g we'll take our temperature on g now that we've concluded our discussions in executive session commissioner brian do you want to lead that one certainly madam chair um following the executive edition i think that the submission meets expectations for me um subject to um the conditions we've already talked about that were previously applied to pan and my understanding is also agreeable by ps i thank you i agree thank you agree thank you same great with that we have gone to all of the application we've had the presentation and if um we can move ahead with the determination i'm not hearing any objections to that all right counselor you want to help guide us and remind us of the both the standards of review and the factors that we need to consider yes thank you my pleasure let's begin with section 205 cm r 218 which is now the familiar section outlining all of the factors to be considered by the commission in determining whether to award the sportsway during operator license and it includes of course the the broad standard that must be considered so ultimately the question to be answered is whether an award of a license would benefit the commonwealth and as you have done over the course of the past two days in answering that question you have to look at the factors that are laid out in this section and recall that of course when making those determinations you must ensure that the record and by the record we mean the application that's been submitted as well as any testimony provided as part of these proceedings and any discussion whether in public or in executive session provides you with substantial evidence at which is defined as such evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion if you are to find that there is substantial evidence to support the conclusion that it would benefit the commonwealth if the license were to be awarded you may move forward and we'll get into the manner of moving forward i.e a full license versus a temporary license as we walk through the process but before we get to that point i think it would be helpful just to walk through the factors which you'll recall include a series of sub factors that we'll go through now and we can certainly pause after every factor to make a judgment as to whether there's substantial evidence or we can just do it all at the end where you have already made findings that the weight of the evidence supports these conclusions but with that i'll begin with the first one which is the applicant's experience and expertise related to sports wager which includes the applicant's background in sports wagering the applicant's experience and licensure and other jurisdictions with sports wagering in a description of the applicant's proposed sports wagering operation or description technical features and operation of its sports wagering platform so that's the first factor the second factor is the economic impact or and other benefits to the commonwealth if the applicant is awarded a license and it includes the following sub factors the employment opportunities within the commonwealth the projected revenue from wagering operations and tax revenue to the commonwealth and community engagement and there's one other sub factors a sub factor that does not imply here the third is the applicant's proposed measures related to responsible gaming including the applicant's responsible gaming policies the applicant's advertising and promotional plans and the applicant's history of demonstrated commitment to responsible gaming fourth is the description of the applicant's willingness to foster racial ethnic and gender diversity equity and inclusion including within the applicant's workforce through the applicant's supplier spend and in the applicant's corporate structure the fifth factor is the technology that the applicant intends to use in its operation including geofencing know your customer measures and technological expertise and reliability and the sixth factor is the suitability of the applicant and its qualifiers and we'll talk about this in a little bit more detail momentarily but the sub factors include whether the applicant can be or has been deemed determined suitable and according to 205 CMR 215 the applicants in all parties in interest to the license the licenses integrity honesty good character and reputation the applicant's financial stability integrity and background the applicant's business practices and business ability to establish and maintain a successful sports wagering operation the applicant's history of compliance with gaming or sports play during licensing requirements and other jurisdictions and whether the applicant is a defendant in litigation involving its business practices and of course finally any other appropriate factor that the commission in its discretion chooses to apply so those are all of the factors and sub factors and again the commission has already made judgments on those and if so ultimately you would make a finding that there is substantial evidence to support that they are in existence and make a determination as to whether a license award would benefit the common wall before we do that though I think it may be helpful just to talk about the suitability provisions of the regulations as well and as you are certainly all well aware at this juncture there are the two varieties of suitability that are in play when it comes to the award of the sports wagering operator license the first is the durable finding of suitability which is essentially the final finding of suitability and that may only be awarded if the applicant and its qualifiers have gone through the full background check and a determination has been made by clear and convincing evidence after an adjudicatory proceeding that the applicant and its qualifiers are suitable and I think it's fair to represent and say that that has not occurred when it comes to this particular applicant and its qualifiers so it there is it seems to me not evidence to support such a conclusion which would bring you to the second form of suitability that the commission may consider which is the preliminary finding of suitability and that decision may be supported by substantial evidence based upon the two essential pieces of information that were submitted and reviewed by the commission the first is the IEB's report which encapsulates the review it did of the materials and that includes which the second provision which are the certifications made by the applicant and the qualifiers as to their suitability and so if you do find that there is substantial evidence in the record to support the preliminary finding of suitability then that finding may enter if a preliminary finding of suitability is entered and ultimately the commission elects to move forward that would make this applicant eligible to apply for a temporary license from the condition from the commission which will of course allow the IEB to conduct its comprehensive background investigation and the commission to reconvene at a later date in an adjudicatory proceeding to determine whether there is clear and convincing evidence of this applicant's suitability so that's that those are the factors the last element that we have looked at and I just want to pull that up is the part of the regulations that discusses conditions and there are a series of mandatory conditions and I'm just going to pull up that regulation really quickly here voluntarily which I will run through for you but before doing so it's also important that this juncture to make sure that we have identified any of the other conditions that it will be unique in some instances to this particular applicant and I have taken note of three of them and I'll go through them now just to make sure that everyone's on the same page before we move into the standard conditions the first is the one that Commissioner O'Brien discussed as we were moving through section E related to responsible gaming and Commissioner O'Brien I'm sorry but maybe you can help me out with the specifics of that condition I missed the part they're mimicking the conditions the two conditions that were put on Penn's license in December and this particular one would be that that the applicant agree to make efforts to ensure that only those 21 and older attend all live events conducted by Barstool College football shows okay so that would be identical to the first condition that was attached to the essentially a plainville gaming and redevelopment category one license right the second condition again is designed it is my understanding to also mirror the condition that was attached to the plainville gaming and redevelopment license related to Barstool sports and that Barstool sports think be subject to a fulsome investigation of its branding efforts relevant in this case to PSI and we will we'll make sure that the language of both is identical when the written decisions issued but it's my understanding that that is the intention and I would also just note I believe that the applicant has stipulated to accepting that particular and just with more particular area I think the language is akin to the PSI will cooperate with the IB in conducting a fulsome investigation without limitation of Barstool Sports Inc in connection with the branding for PSI okay and the third condition that I made note of is that the applicant and then licensee update promptly update the commission and the IB relative to any material proceedings including the outcome of the Illinois matter that was discussed in the executive section those are the I thought there was one more I thought that Commissioner Maynard and Commissioner Skinner wanted goals and diversity goals and I didn't know if it was supply or spend or employment or both well and there's language and we impose this condition on one of the other licensees and so just if we're going to keep the language consistent we should we should do that here although I cannot remember if we impose the condition relative to workforce I think it was okay well in the again in the written decision to make sure that mirrors the other condition we'll kind of run through which applicant or licensee that was okay so those are I guess the four conditions that we have identified here and Madam Chair I think you had the I think you had two that came under the earlier and then we have the two supply unless you're going to combine the workforce separate from supply or spend so that's four and then the other one did you decide that should be a condition Illinois I'm sorry Madam Chair what one point with respect to the diversity condition we know that as the as the commission is noted there's been no condition applied with respect to workforce to any other applicants and similarly the vendor condition it appeared from what we've observed has not been necessarily consistently applied and we would request obviously given the importance of DEI that whatever determination the commission sees fit to make that it apply equally to all applicant to all category three applicants commissioners do you want to address this question I I'm not sure if it's what might be different here and correct me that there were no goals set right that was the distinction is other provided it was part of the app within the four corners of the application and I think the other persons the other licensee subject to that condition had like yourself not put in goals yeah the conditions are certainly responsive to what you know we you have provided in the in the application and where we see that it's inadequate I think that's what we're dealing with here and that is what distinguishes psi's application from the other licensee that we placed a similar condition on we actually had two licensees that we put the supplier goals on and again Mr. Levy I would I would reiterate what we've said here today is that we didn't do it in places where the question was answered the question is asked in the application it's a very direct question if it was sidestepped in the answer or not answered fully or directly we've asked for this and so we're just asking for the question to be I appreciate that commissioners okay to the extent I want to be fair to Mr. Levy to the extent we were inadvertently inconsistent we will we will manage that you know I had commissioners I think we we want to at this point in time I don't have a memory of that we will double check Councilor Grossman probably would have those four plus the Illinois one you you described as a condition so that's five right yes so I have five conditions okay okay I'm sorry no you lost me I had four what's can you just run through them again I had four all in so there's the two that were also attached to Plainville yep there's the third is the update as to the proceedings and outcome of the Illinois matter the first the fourth oh yeah four the diversity diversity spend right spend for workforce and supply so I think we separate them out to be consistent with what we've done in the past I think okay so that's how you get five one is spend and one is workforce yes I think that makes five yeah okay workforce and supplier spend right yes separate them out because it's a different request okay okay so I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm done turning it over to you oh great no I was just going to walk through the automatic conditions if you will just which will work in conjunction with the four or five we've just identified and they are and these are by the way identified in section 220.01 sub one of the regulations they say that the operator must obtain an operation certificate before conducting any sports wagering operation in the Commonwealth the operator must comply with all terms and conditions of its license and operation certificate the operator must comply with chapter 23 in and all rules and regulations of the commission the operator must make all required payments to the commission in a timely manner which in this case would be the one million dollar temporary licensing fee when we get to that piece that the operator maintain its suitability to hold the sports wagering license and that the operator conducts sports wagering in accordance with its approved system of internal controls consistent with 205 cmr and in accordance with its approved house rules in accordance with chapter 23 and section 10a and consistent with 205 cmr those are the automatic conditions in conjunction with the others we have identified that would attach to the award here now the so the the question ultimately before you get down to the ultimate question I suppose is whether you are inclined to award a preliminary finding of suitability as opposed to the durable finding as that governs the outcome of the the decision in some way so that's a good place to start so you want us to to turn to the suitability first is that what you said well I think that we can start there or if you can go through all the factors before reaching your ultimate conclusion we do have to decide whether it's a durable finding or well isn't it it can't be durable because we haven't had an adjudicatory hearing with an investigation so isn't the only option available preliminary as a legal matter I would say that's correct but I do think you have to make that fine you would make the finding but I do think to clarify the durability really was the durable finding really was set aside for category one right because all of us so maybe we can streamline this discussion and say right the only the only standard of review is substantial evidence to support all of the factors correct and we have to decide can it not so much about they're inconvincing and and durable but can it's their preliminary so the way you're thinking is their preliminary rather than does that help odd can we do that is that too streamlined nope that that makes sense to you can do that absolutely you want to reframe it so it makes sense because I was just saying it off the top of my head sure when you when you get to the suitability factor the question is is there substantial evidence of the preliminary suitability of this applicant and it's called okay so commissioners perhaps then council harassment has gone through all the factors and the sub factors and includes that in our agenda of suitability do we have them do do we want to move forward on a finding of substantial evidence with respect to all of them or do we want to do it individually or do we want to not move forward but so ever I would need a motion for guidance Madam Chair I'm happy to make a motion my recommendation would be since it's all the same standard of evidence and we appear to reach consensus that we can reference the substantial evidence standard in the motion and break down the three components do you want to move and then we'll see if yeah okay Madam Chair I move that the commission find based on the application and what was discussed before us both yesterday and today that the applicant Penn Sports Interactive DBA Barstool Sportsbook has shown by substantial evidence that they have satisfied the criteria set forth in general law chapter 23N as well as 205 CMR 218.065 that the license award would benefit the Commonwealth and lastly that they have established their qualification for preliminary suitability in accordance with 205 CMR 215.01 2 and 218.071 and that the approval be subject to the requirements of 23N the requirements set forth in 205 CMR 220.01 and also subject to the following five conditions namely that the PSI agree to make efforts that no one under the age of 21 attend any of the Barstool football shows the live Barstool football shows to that they cooperate fully with the IEB conducting an investigation without limitation Barstool Sports Inc in connection with branding for PSI three that they provide any updates to IEB relating to the Illinois matter that was discussed in executive session and four that they provide diversity goals on their supplier spend and lasting number five that they also supply diversity goals for workforce. Second. Any questions or additions or amendments to their motion? I'll turn to Councillor Grossman. Are we all set? All clear. Okay commissioners no edits no questions with that. Commissioner O'Brien. Hi. Commissioner Hill. Hi. Commissioner Skinner. Hi. Commissioner Maynard. Hi. And I vote yes. Congratulations PSI. This is now the beginning of an ongoing process I am I know that there's still the verification and testing processes and certification processes ahead but we congratulate you at this juncture and thank you for the very fulsome and interesting and compelling presentation yesterday and your application. Commissioners, Commissioner O'Brien. I as I say to everyone congratulations and good luck and I want to say in particular thank you to this team who has answered very candidly the questions that I've had both in December and over the last two days. Thank you commissioner. Commissioner Hill. Congratulations and looking forward to working with you as we move forward. Likewise thank you commissioner. Commissioner Skinner. Congratulations to you and thank you for your time today and such a thorough presentation yesterday. Thank you commissioner. Commissioner Maynard. Congratulations and the first approved in 2023 so good luck. Thank you very much. Great. Great. Thank you and thank you to our team for all of the good work that you've done to support this applicant and the process particularly all of those that are here today but you will make sure to pass them on the word to everyone who is not attending right now because it takes the entire team so thank you. Mr. Levy. Thank you very much madam chair and commissioners and commission staff for your diligence. We're very excited to get up and running in Massachusetts. We know there's a few more hurdles to clear before we do that but the end is in sight and we're tremendously excited and thank you again. Thank you. Thanks so much and nor thank you and happy new year to you and your team in in Plain Ridge and thank you. We are very pleased. It's always nice to see you miss Chamberlain Aaron. Thank you so much and and and we thank everyone for their as commissioner very important out the candid and thorough reports today and you all made such a difference. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. So we now are going to look to lunch it's 12.55 five minutes before one. Commissioners could we reconvene at 1.30 does that make sense and invite our next staff to come in. Do I have a an okay with that plan? Yeah already. Thank you everyone and we will reconvene at 1.30. Thank you. Thank you. We're back. Okay Dave thank you. Good afternoon everyone and Dave we're streaming now collect. Yep. Okay I'll set commissioners. You guys see. Not quite yet. Oh yes I see everyone now. This is a reconvening. Good afternoon of the reconvening of the Massachusetts Gain Commission number 419. Today is January 4th and we are now turning to a new application before we start though I need to take a roll call because we're holding this meeting virtually. Good afternoon commissioner Brian. Good afternoon I'm here. Good afternoon commissioner Hill. Good afternoon I'm here. Good afternoon commissioner Skinner. Good afternoon I'm here. Good afternoon I'm here. Excellent. So many of you may have heard these remarks before but for the record we want to make sure that all new stakeholders do hear them and so if you for those who have heard them bear with me and with counsel Grossman it's important for those who haven't heard them to have the chance today. So these are introduced introductory remarks and a reminder to my fellow applicants my fellow commissioners that as we begin our evaluation of today's application we as commissioners are reminded of our principal responsibility to ensure the public confidence in the integrity of the gaming industry here in Massachusetts and the strict oversight of the gaming establishments and now sports wagering operators through rigorous regulation. We are reminded that the MGC's licensees will be held to the highest standards of compliance including an obligation to maintain their integrity. As we have said in the past the award of a gaming license in the Commonwealth is a peerless privilege and our laws require gaming licensees to be held to those highest standards on a continuing basis. The MGC mission commits us to creating a fair transparent and participatory process that engenders the confidence of the public and participants. That process is to benefit the Commonwealth while minimizing potential or realized negative or unintended consequences. And with that understanding the MGC and all of its powers are created by statute. We must follow the process required by the legislature and to shed further light on that process I turn to General Counsel Grossman. Thank you Madam Chair. The issuance of a sports wagering operator license is relatively complex in some ways because it spans Chapter 23K of the General Laws Regulating Casino Operators and Chapter 23N which covers sports wagering. It's that complexity that we must deal with as part of these proceedings and the statutory scheme with which we must comply. Significantly the timing of the full suitability investigation and determination are different under the two statutes. Chapter 23K required full suitability before licensure of the casino gaming operators while Chapter 23N offers a presumption of suitability to some of those licensees. However for the mobile operators who have not gone through suitability the way the casinos have Chapter 23N requires a temporary license before full suitability. Currently we're engaged in the public meeting process relative to the temporary licensure of a mobile sports wagering license under Chapter 23N. Our proceeding today is not an adjudicatory hearing. Any question as to durable suitability which we'll discuss in more detail momentarily would take place at a later time after a thorough investigation that would include an informed determination of any individuals or entities which bear on an applicant's suitability and after full consideration in a properly convened adjudicatory hearing. Madam Chair with that I believe you wish to conclude your opening remarks. Thank you Attorney Grossman and thank you again to my fellow commissioners and the entire MGC team for your commitment to our mission and for really your tireless diligence over the last several months and for those months ahead. And to all of you happy new year with that let me give a brief overview of today's agenda. First again you'll hear from Attorney Grossman who will review the statutory and regulatory framework that will guide us as we evaluate your application. Then we'll hear from FBG Enterprises OPCOP LLC or Fanatics who will present its application for a tethered category three online sports wagering license. After Fanatics presentation we'll hear from GLI, IEB and RSM relative to the technology suitability and finance components of the application. And then that will lead us to a section by section analysis of the application during which the applicant will answer our questions. Staff members and our legal team in addition to GLI, IEB and RSM will also be available to answer questions. To ensure that we have ample time to reflect, finalize any personal notes when finalizing our impressions, we may decide to have a break after consideration of each section or number of sections. Then after any further questions for purposes of review of the category three application, I'll seek from the group comments in a sense as to whether we have a consensus regarding the quality of the applicant's response to that section. Did the applicant not meet expectations relevant to the standard of review outlined by General Counsel Grossman? Did the applicant meet expectations? Or did the applicant exceed expectations? At any time during this public meeting the commission may determine that an executive session is required for us to fully review and evaluate certain information in the application as set forth in the agenda. Should we both go into executive session with the guidance of our legal counsel? At this time it is anticipated the public session of this commission meeting will reconvene today at the conclusion of any section. After our review of the application, we will consider whether we wish to proceed with our determination process fully or in part or defer that decision entirely to another day. So now I'll turn to the next item on our agenda and that's turning to General Counsel Grossman. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon and good afternoon commissioners and all who are joining here today. As the chair has noted, we're here so that the commission may evaluate the application received for category three tethered sports wagering license from FBG Enterprises OPCO LLC which would operate under the Fanatics brand. This applicant has applied as a tethered operator to the Plainville Gaming and Redevelopment license which is of course the entity that operates Plain Ridge Park Casino, the category one licensee. Prior to commencing this review however it may be useful to set the stage by walking through the legal provisions and principles that will inform the commission's decision making. And with that I'll highlight a few provisions of the Massachusetts Sports Wagering Act which has been enacted as chapter 23 in of the general laws and then a number of sections of the commission's recently adopted regulations. Allow me to begin with chapter 23 and the first place to look there is section 63 which says that the commission may issue a category three license to any entity that offers sports wagering through a mobile application or other digital platform that meets the requirements of this chapter and the rules and regulations of the commission. Provided however the commission shall issue no more than seven category three licenses that are not connected to a category one or category two license. In the present matter the applicant is connected to a category one licensee again specifically Plainville Gaming and Redevelopment. That entity was previously awarded its temporary category one license by the commission on December 20th. We have used the term tethered to describe that connection between the category one licensee and the category three licensee. Since this applicant before you today is a tethered applicant you'll recall that that means that the seven license limit does not apply to this type of licensure. Before we look to the commission's regulations that govern the licensing process for category three applicant let's establish what a category three sports wagering operator license is. That term is defined in section three of chapter 23 and to mean a license issued by the commission that permits the operation of sports wagering through mobile application and other digital platforms approved by the commission. And just to place the present application in context it's important to recall that a category one license holder such as Plainville Gaming and Redevelopment is permitted to conduct sports wagering operations through not more than two individually branded mobile applications or other digital platforms approved by the commission provided that those mobile applications themselves shall be required for and issued a category three license. So the applicant before the commission today seeks to operate one of those two digital platforms that go along with PGR's category one license. Of course the other one will be operated by Penn Sports Interactive which the commission just reviewed. Let's have a look at the commission's rules and regulations that have to be met by the applicant in order to be issued a license. The best place to begin here is with 205 CMR 218 which as you know is the section that sets out the application requirements standard and procedures. The process itself has of course already begun. An administrative sufficiency review was performed upon the submission of the suitability portions of the application and then the commission can be into public meeting a few weeks back in order to receive public feedback on the tethered category three applications. And momentarily we'll walk through the factors and standards that the commission has set out for the award of such a license. But prior to doing so there are a few other provisions and principles that are important to recall as well. First the regulations provide that the commission shall analyze the factors and considerations set out in the regulations but need not do so in any particular order or give any particular factor any particular weight and in fact the commission can assign a factor no weight at all if deemed appropriate. Next you'll recall that the regulations provide that the commission may require or permit the applicant to provide additional information or documents as the commission deems appropriate in its review of the application. So if you are evaluating the information provided in the application relative to a particular factor and you determine that further information is required may direct that the applicant provide it. Similarly if during the course of the commission's evaluation the application the applicant observes that there is additional information that was not provided that may be of use to the commission it may request an opportunity to provide it. It's further noteworthy that the present review as mentioned previously is being conducted as part of a regular public meeting under the open meeting law and not an adjudicatory proceeding. And that means a number of things including that all deliberations must take place in public and that if necessary the executive session provisions of chapter 30A may be utilized. As it pertains to the instant matter section 21A7 of chapter 30A allows the commission to move into executive session to comply with or act under the authority of any general law. In the present situation there is a general law that gives the commission authority to move into executive session. Specifically section 6i of chapter 23N provides that applications for operator licenses shall be public records under section 10 of chapter 66 provided however that trade secrets competitively sensitive or other proprietary information provided in the course of an application for an operator license under this chapter. The disclosure of which would place the applicant at a competitive disadvantage may be withheld from disclosure under the public records law. In some if there is any specific information that the commission would like to discuss but that the applicant identifies as falling within that division or another of the public records law that the commission and the commission agrees with that assessment it may move into executive session to discuss that specific information. And while the statutory provision in chapter 23N relates to the public records law and not the open meeting law to require that the subject information be discussed publicly would nullify the whole purpose of the provision which it is designed to protect. Accordingly application of the executive session provision I referenced is appropriate in this instance. Finally before moving into the factors themselves it's also important to recall that any finding the commission makes must be supported by substantial evidence. This term is defined as such evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. So when making a determination as to whether there is support in the application to find that a specific factor has been satisfied or that it has not been satisfied the commission will have to ensure that there is substantial evidence in the record to support that conclusion. The one exception to this rule and an area in which a heightened standard is applied relates to the review of an applicant's suitability. By the terms of section 215 of the regulations any durable finding of suitability must be supported by clear and convincing evidence not just substantial evidence which is a slightly lower standard. Our jurisprudence tells us that clear and convincing proof exists when evidence induces in the mind of the fact finder a reasonable belief that the facts asserted are highly probably true and that the probability that they are true or exist is substantially greater than the probability that they are false or do not exist. For evidence to be clear and convincing and must be sufficient to convey a high degree of probability that the proposition to be proved is true and it must be strong and positive and full clear and decisive. So those are the two standards of review if you will that will be in play during this evaluation. So now let me allow me to lay out the factors included in section 218. When we get to that part of the proceeding the commission has of course reviewed each application in the past factor by factor and additionally you will call that the commission included sub factors under each of these regulatory factors. Prior to engaging in final deliberations relative to the applicant it may be helpful to outline each of these sub factors as we have done in the past though I'm not going to do that right now. The factors are included in section 218.06 subsection 5. Each factor falls under the umbrella standard that the commission included in the regulation which directs that in determining whether to award a sports wagering operating license the commission will evaluate the application to determine whether a license award would benefit the Commonwealth. So that's the main standard that will have to be met in order to award a license. In reaching that conclusion though the commission provided that will it will consider the following factors and you'll recall that the application itself was designed so as to solicit information in these categories. Number one the applicant's experience and expertise related to sports wagering. Two the economic impact and other benefits to the Commonwealth that the applicant is awarded a license. Number three the applicant's proposed measures related to responsible gaming. Number four a description of the applicant's willingness to foster racial, ethnic and gender diversity, equity and inclusion. Number five the technology that the applicant intends to use in its operation. Number six the suitability of the applicant and its qualifiers and we'll come back to this one momentarily. And number seven any other appropriate factor in the commission's discretion. So those are the factors that will be reviewed and you'll recall that there are a few additional factors that the commission included in the regulations relative to category three evaluations. However those considerations are specific to untethered applicants not the tethered sort before you today. And so let me just circle back to the suitability factor. As you know the commission has adopted section 215 of the regulations to govern these determinations and it included provisions allowing for two types of suitability findings. A durable finding of suitability which is the so-called final determination or preliminary finding of suitability. You may choose to award a durable finding only if you conclude that an applicant and each of its qualifiers has demonstrated their suitability by clear and convincing proof after having undergone a probity investigation. The entity before you I would submit has not gone through that process. Accordingly you may consider the second type of finding for this matter and that is the preliminary finding. You may award that finding of suitability to the applicant if it has satisfied section 215.01 paragraph two based upon a certification submitted by the applicant and the investigatory report submitted by the IEB. If you find an applicant this applicant to be preliminarily suitable that makes them eligible to request a temporary license under the process described in section 219 of the regulations. The entity would not receive a full license at this juncture. This process is designed to allow for the customary full thorough background investigation and supplemental suitability determination at an adjudicatory proceeding to be conducted by the IEB and the commission in perspective. So those are all the factors that the commission must consider in order to make a licensing decision. As you work your way through the evaluation though as has become evident it may become clear that a condition of licensure will be appropriate in a particular area. For example you may find that the information relative to a particular factor is lacking and that event does not necessarily mean that the applicant cannot be awarded a license. It may simply mean that the area may require to be supplemented with an appropriate condition. License conditions are described in section 220 of the regulations and you'll recall that there are a number of automatic conditions like an obligation to obtain an operation certificate prior to commencing operations and that the operator comply with chapter 23N and all commission regulations. But there's also a provision that allows the commission to impose any other conditions that it determines are appropriate to secure the objectives of chapter 23N and 205CMR. Once the commission has made its way through all of the enumerated factors but before any final decision is made as to whether to award a license the commission should shore up what those final conditions will be in the event that the commission is inclined to award the license. Once that's done the commission may decide whether it will award this category III a license outright if a durable finding suitability is awarded whether it will award a preliminary finding of suitability and determine that the applicant is eligible to request a temporary license while the complete suitability assessment is performed or it may deny the application for failure to meet a requirement of the regulations or for having violated section 60 or 9 of chapter 23N. To be clear receipt of a category III license in the fashion the commission is reviewing today whether temporary or full does not permit for the untethered mobile operation just tether as one of the two digital or mobile operations associated with the category I license. At that juncture a written decision will be prepared and issued commemorating the commission's decision. Keep in mind of course that the award of the license or temporary license does not mean that the licensee has a green light to commence operations. It simply means that they're eligible to work towards the award of an operation certificate which is a prerequisite to conducting sports wagering operations. That process is described in section 251 and requires submission and approval of such things as internal controls including house rules and compliance with any conditions that may be imposed by the commission. With that Madam Chair and commissioners I will end my introductory remarks and turn matters back over to you Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you Attorney Grossman. So now we turn to you the applicant for your presentation in a demonstration if possible. I'm not sure who's going to leave. Is it Mr. King or? Hi Madam Chair. I'll begin. Hi Mr. Smith. Thank you so much. We look forward to your presentation and again welcome and happy new year and thank you for your indulgence as we work our way through our busy schedule. Thank you so much. Thank you. Madam Chair, commissioners, Attorney Grossman, members of the commission staff, good afternoon and happy new year to you all as well. I'm Alex Smith, the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Fanatic Spending and Gaming. It's a pleasure to address you all today and to be considered for a category three tethered sports wagering license. Today I'm joined by Matt King, the Chief Operating Officer of Fanatic Spending and Gaming. Also joined by Ari Borod, our Chief Business Officer. Scott McClintic, our Chief Product Officer. Andrea Ellis, our Chief Financial Officer. Jason White, our Chief Marketing Officer as well as Adam Berger, our outside counsel and a partner at the law firm Dwayne Morris. We greatly appreciate your diligence and your hard work to make legal and safe sports wagering in the Commonwealth a reality and we are excited to present you all today and to tell you more about Fanatic Spending and Gaming. I'll briefly turn over the presentation to Adam Berger for a few remarks. Thank you, Madam Chair and commissioners. Before we turn over to Matt to really kick off the presentation here, just wanted to make a brief statement. As you'll see in our presentation, the intent is to make, the intent of the presentation is for everything to remain public in the interest of the public laws of Massachusetts. However, Fanatic, as we'll discuss, is a private company that does not get launched at sports betting product. So there may be certain instances during our presentation where we will request that the commission indulge us in the executive session as we'll be presenting matters that relate to trade secrets are competitively sensitive or otherwise considered proprietary under chapter 23 and section 6i. We'll address those, we get to those in the presentation, but without further delay, we'll turn it over to Matt King, our CEO. Great. Thank you, Adam. And I think Alex, you're going to put the presentation up. Yes, I will. We laid out a presentation in the same manner that's consistent with the application. So hopefully that's a structure that's helpful. I would reiterate Alex's points and appreciation around you're taking the time today to review our application. We are excited to be considered an applicant for the Commonwealth and are confident that we could be additive to the market overall and are excited to share our story with you today. So Alex, you can pull the presentation up. Yes, I may need someone from the commission staff to grant me access to share. This is where I can't be of any help. I'm here. You shouldn't actually need any permission, but on the bottom next to the chat button on the right, you should see share screen. It's asking me to restart. So let me drop and join right back. Thank you. Apologies for that. No apologies. Three years into COVID and teleconferencing, it always seems to go wrong. Well, yesterday I started my day with I'm on mute and I said, oh, that was so 2022, but we've had two situations today where we got cut out. So, um, but you know what? That's a lot for a lot of flexibility. We're very fortunate. That is true. That is true. Okay, so back. Let's try this again. Let's see. Otherwise, there we go. Great. I love it when technology works. So you'll see from the agenda slide, um, we have a six part presentation that we'll run through. I'll cover the first two sections, then hand it off. Um, Alex, if you can go to the next slide, um, sorry, go back one to the agenda. So first, we'd cover an introduction to fanatics, betting and gaming. We'll also, as part of this cover an overview of fanatics, um, holdings and the overall fanatics business, then we'll move into our expertise and experience in sports wagering, followed up by an economic impact and kind of benefits to the Commonwealth articulation. We'll proceed from there to a discussion about responsible gaming, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion, in addition to community involvement, both parts four and five are incredibly important to who we are. And we're excited to share how we approach those things with you today. And then finally, we'll go into a product and technology demonstration. So Alex, if you want to move to the next slide, please. So fanatics, betting and gaming is a subsidiary of Fanatics Holdings. Fanatics Holdings is the holding company that also operates a business known as Fanatics Commerce and a business called Fanatics Collectibles. Fanatics Commerce is the largest seller of licensed sports merchandise in the world. So if you, you can buy from Fanatics directly, or if you go to like the NFL shop.com, you'll actually be purchasing from Fanatics. So basically anywhere in sports where you see it's a Fanatics experience that's operated by us. And then Fanatics Collectibles is the largest collectibles business in the country. And we talk about collectibles as primarily trading cards. Within that business, we own the brand tops. And we also have the rights to a number of other sports properties that'll come into effect over the next couple of years. Those are our first two businesses and then our third business that will obviously be the focus of today's conversation is the betting and gaming business. We are on track to launch our gaming business, our betting and gaming business in Q1-23 with the intention of being in largely all major markets by September of 2023 with Massachusetts launching on the earlier end and ideally in line with the start date of the overall Commonwealth sports betting activities. As was discussed, this is a tethered license in partnership with Plain Ridge Park Casino. Good. Next slide, Alex. We believe that Fanatics betting and gaming will play the role of innovator in the sports betting market. If you look at how the category is shaped today, it is largely shaped by people that were really day one operators, Fando being one of those. It was the business I formally ran. But when we think about digital markets, innovation is incredibly important and new entrants are incredibly important to driving innovation for those digital markets. And we believe that we are an innovator that has a strong chance of being successful in the category. We believe that we will be successful in the sports way during category for five reasons. One is this team has been successful in US markets before. We'll talk a little bit more in a few slides about the Fando experience. But really what I've done since leaving Fando is assemble a team that has proven track record in both sports betting as well as other digital categories. And we believe we can bring a unique and innovative perspective to the overall market. Fanatics itself is also a proven innovator in sports. If you look at the original commerce business, that again, we'll go into a little bit more detail in a few slides. Fanatics was a true innovator in that commerce business. And that innovation has resulted in a better fan experience and a much larger marketplace. And now we're also innovating in the trading card market, which has historically been a very sleepy category, but very important to the sports space. And the team that runs Fanatics Collectibles is bringing a number of innovations to that market. And we would look to do the same thing to the gaming market. We have a very experienced leadership team overall, but also specifically in sports wagering with a combined hundreds of years of experience. We'll go through the senior team and we're happy to answer questions about the more detailed team. The fourth reason why we believe we'll be successful is we do have a very strong commitment to diversity. It's been one of the benefits of building a startup in this environment is we really be able to create what we believe is the most diverse team in the industry, with over 52% of our company's employees identifying as either female or diverse and a very diverse executive team as well. And then lastly, we have put responsible gaming at our core. This is something that I think we've benefited both from my and others experience in the US, but also as you look at our executive team, we brought experience from a number of international markets that are more advanced, candidly more advanced around responsible gaming in sports wagering. And we've really tried to bring a best in class approach to responsible gaming, which we believe is at the heart of building a long term successful and durable business. If you go to the next slide, Alex, so you're a little bit of context on fanatics holdings. So on the left hand side, you can see kind of the valuation of the business over time. We're really over the last 24 to 36 months, we've significantly grown the valuation of the business that uptick in the value of the business really corresponded from fanatics going from just a commerce only business to being a diversified sports platform focused on commerce collectibles and gaming. We've ended the last year with two billion of cash on the balance sheet and very little debt. So we're also very strongly capitalized business. On the right hand side, you can see the revenue growth for the business, which you can see has been growing very nicely and we're on pace to do north of six billion of revenue this year. And we have a number of leading investors, everybody from Silver Lake to Insight, a bit of a long term investors in the business. As Adam said, we are still private, but we're a very strongly capitalized business and one that we believe has a lot of bright future ahead of it. Go to the next slide, Alex, please. So I'd like now to move to talking about our expertise and experience in sports wagering. So let's start with the top team. So in building fanatics betting and gaming, I was very focused on doing two things. One was building a diverse team and two was building a team that brought both a lot of sports wagering and eye gaming expertise, as well as a lot of experience from other leading digital categories. And I believe that we've successfully done that at our executive team level, because I do believe that the tone of those two things, diversity in particular, starts at the top. And so we'll go through everybody's bios in more detail, but just to highlight on some of the phenomenal brands and experiences that these people bring and this team brings, obviously, there's a lot of fandal experience. Jason comes from Beats by Dre, which was obviously one of the most successful hard goods electronics businesses out there that was subsequently bought by Apple. Andrea comes to us from Lyme, which was a very successful technology business in the micro mobility space. And then people like Ian had a long experience at world-class technology organizations like Amazon, and Andy has experience from an international perspective and really being one of the people that helped build Skype. And so we'll go through in detail, but I'm incredibly pleased with our leadership team and the background and diversity that it represents. One of the things that was very important to me in leaving fandal and starting a new entrepreneurial venture was finding the right partner. I believe that Fanatics was the right platform to do that. But more importantly, Michael Rubin was the right partner to help build this business. Michael is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in sports. He originally built GSI commerce and sold that to eBay. Subsequently, he has built Fanatics since 2011. And not only is he an exceptional business person, but he has been very committed to philanthropy and social justice. He is the co-founder of Robert Craft of the Reform Alliance, which is one of the core organizations focused on advancing criminal justice reform and a big part of one of the causes that Fanatics supports. My background, as you can see, is I helped build fandal into what it is today. When I took over fandal as CEO, we had about $120 million of revenue. And when we left, we had nearly $2 billion. And we were the number one player in the sports betting space. And so I have a proven track record in the sports wagering category in the U.S. We go to the next slide. Three additional members of our management team are Arba Road. He's our Chief Business Officer. He was previously with me at fandal and then Chief Operating Officer of the Action Network. Action Network is obviously one of the most critical players in the value chain of sports wagering. Being a large affiliate, he leads our commercial legal and compliance functions. Andrea Ellis comes to us from Lime, which is a micro-mobility company, where she had an incredibly successful track record in building that business and navigating a very challenging environment there. She had previously held senior roles at restaurant brands international. And so as a broad base of experience, it's very relevant to what we're doing. Jason White is our Chief Marketing Officer. He was formerly the Chief Marketing Officer of MTV Entertainment and previously was a Cura Leaf and Beats by Dre, which we talked about as an incredibly successful technology business that Apple subsequently bought. Scott is our Chief Product Officer. He previously held the same role at Penn Interactive and was responsible for launching that business originally, which was one of the best examples of a brick-and-mortar company launching an online business. And so as a proven track record in building new eye gaming in sports wagering products, Ian was with me at fandal. He was the Chief Technology Officer there. Previous to that, he was at Amazon. While at fandal, he was responsible for the launch of our second generation sports wagering platform, as well as numerous new state rollouts. So he has experience, not just at building new products, but also scaling geographically. Andy comes to us from SkyBet, where he used to run trading and help build that business. And for those of you that are not familiar, SkyBet is very analogous to what we, they did in the UK, what we will do in the US, which is really be a second mover in the category. And SkyBet did that really through creating a very consumer-focused proposition. And you're being focused on customer experience above all else, which is a core part of our cultural DNA of fanatic spending and gaming. And then Kristen Lachman is our Chief People Officer, and she comes to us from the Action Network and previously at Twitter. So again, a great mix of both relevant sports wagering experience, but also high-end technology companies as well. In terms of what our offering will be, and we'll go into a lot more detail throughout the rest of this presentation, but I would kind of call out five core points. One is from the ground up, one of the luxuries that we've had as being a second mover in the category is we can have the benefit of hindsight and what works and what didn't work from all of our previous experiences. And that's led us, first and foremost, to build a product that can scale, that creates a resilient and scalable business that was powered by AWS to the extent that using cloud infrastructure is possible. This is important from a consumer experience perspective because one of the things that's been most frustrating to consumers in the first wave of sports betting rollouts has been stability. And so by engineering the platform from day one to be built for scale, we believe that we can create a platform that's the most stable in the industry. We did partner with Amelko, which we'll talk about again in more detail, to purchase their core code base. This was important because it is a proven code base, an operating platform in the US as well as internationally. And so we feel very good that we were able to build our business on the back of your world-class sport and proven sports wager and technology. From a product perspective, we have 70% of the organization is product and engineering, so we have heavily invested in world-class Silicon Valley caliber engineers to build innovative new features with a particular focus on loyalty. We do have a commitment to market the product, so we're in this category to build real share. And that means that we will be marketing and working closely with a number of local businesses in the Commonwealth to ensure that we build the right brand and a well-known brand within the Commonwealth. And then at our core, from a customer perspective, we want to be the most preferred brand to all consumers, period full stop. And one of the big components of that will be having the best operations team in the business with 24-7 support to support fans at any time that they need support, frankly, in the mode of communication that they want, whether that's chat, text, or voice. From a licensing status perspective, we do have two granted licenses in Maryland and Ohio, and then we have five other applications pending, and we've never had one obviously revoked, suspended, or denied. So while we are relatively new in our journey, we believe that we have proven that we can be licensed in a number of other states, and we look forward to entering those states. So with that, I'll transition it over to Harry and discuss the economic impact and benefits to the Commonwealth. Hello everyone, and just to echo Matt's thought, thanks everyone for taking the time to listen to us today. So I'll quickly talk about the economic impact and benefits of the Commonwealth in Massachusetts. Go ahead, all right. So if we were to license, we believe we'll have a significant impact, both economic and other benefits to the Commonwealth, and we will really do this in three particular capacities. First, we'll seek to take significant market share in the Commonwealth and drive meaningful economic benefit through tax revenues. Second, we will leverage our inherent advantages, which I'll talk a bit more about, but such as our brand and our database, to attract a broader customer segment and grow the overall tax base attributable to the Commonwealth. And third, our company presents significant employment opportunities in the Commonwealth with a commitment to diversity and community engagement, as Matt has already mentioned. At present, Fanatic's company-wide employs over 400 people in the Commonwealth, and we operate the e-commerce websites for the New England Patriots, the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Celtics, the Bruins, as well as the New England Revolution. So in terms of those inherent advantages, we believe they're fourfold. First is to really build an easy-to-use, innovative product. And the key is that this will be an easy-to-use product for all sports fans, not merely the more sophisticated sports betters. Second will be best-in-class customer acquisition through our valuable database in sports, which I'll talk about in a moment. Third is an existing brand known and trusted by sports fans. And last is an omnichannel experience built on loyalty. I think having the diversified verticals focused on sports brings a very unique angle to the industry that our competitors do not have. And again, this allows us to expand the overall tax base and bring a broader segment of sports fans to the market. So in terms of the database, it is 94 million sports fans with over 2 million residents in the Commonwealth. What this does is really allow us to bring a more personalized fan-centric approach to our marketing and product. For example, if you're a fan of the Boston Red Sox, there's no reason you should just be served New England Patriots promos. And vice versa. So the goal is really to deliver a product catered to our customers and what their wants and needs are. And of course, my colleagues, Alex Smith and Jason Whitehoron will discuss this more. We always market to this database using industry standard practices and leading technology to do so in a responsible manner. We talked a bunch about a leading product. And Scott McClintock, who's our Chief Product Officer, will give you all a demo of that later. But another advantage of our database is the access to customer research we've had. What we've learned is that what people want is relatively simple. They want what is out there, but they want it done better. And so we are committed to delivering a best in class product that's focused on the core things of what a sports betting product should accomplish. And that is, you should be able to sign up. You should be able to get your money in. You should be able to find the bet you want. You should be able to place that bet. You should be able to follow that bet a fun and engaging way. And you should be able to get your funds back. And the goal of delivering those in the best way possible is really to encourage customers from switching over from our competitors, but also to bring new casual customers into the industry and also to create a better stickier product that is focused on retention. And of course, focus on the interconnectedness that drives loyalty across our multi-vertical sports business. And as I've said, we will remain customer-centric. What this means is really always putting the customer first. This includes being available to customers 24-7 through a variety of channels, including email, as well as chat, both automated and via human, and also by voice. And while we launch initially, we will be in English only. We will endeavor to have multiple languages available based off consumer needs. Last, in terms of employment opportunities, Fanatics has a long history of being committed to the Commonwealth. As I mentioned earlier across the company, we employ over 400 people, eight of whom are employed directly by FBG at the moment. FBG is a remote-friendly company, and so we will continue to hire employees remotely, which includes the Commonwealth. And last, given our partnerships with existing businesses in the Commonwealth, we will continue to seek out innovative and creative ways to work with them, which will create near and medium-term work projects within Massachusetts. In the next section, my colleague, Kristin Lockman, will also discuss our commitment to diversity and community engagement, which of course includes Mr. Rubin's involvement in the Reform Alliance with significant support from Robert Kraft. In terms of revenue projections, our CFO, Andrea Ellis, is on here as well, and is available to discuss any questions you might have on that later in an executive session. And with that, I believe I'll pass it back over to my colleague, Alex Smith. I think actually I'll just jump right in. Yes, and I'll introduce Jason White, our Chief Marketing Officer to cover this slide. Okay. Sorry about that, Alex. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Jason White. I'm the Chief Marketing Officer, and I wanted to present to you our thinking around marketing responsibly, because as our CEO said, it's integral to our thinking, and it's integral to our business. It's integral to who we are. And part of that is because the nature of our business model is to have very long-term relationships with our consumers and to have relationships with them across many different landscapes. So whether that is jerseys, whether that is baseball cards, it's in our best interest to have a healthy long-term relationship with those consumers. So it is really, truly at the core of how we are building our business and how we sort of execute in the marketplace. That includes, first and foremost, making that fan central to what we do in those decisions. And there's this list here of exactly what we are doing, and I can go into a little more detail here. But first and foremost, adopting the industry best practices, including the AGA's responsible marketing code for sports wagering. I have read that. I know that. My team has read that. They know that. It's something that we're well versed in, including responsible gaming messaging and all marketing materials. I would honestly call that low-hanging fruit. And again, we're not here just to execute the low-hanging fruit, but we're here to make sure we've done those bare minimums and then beyond. Not advertising in areas where we can expect patrons to be predominantly under 21 years old, including Massachusetts college campuses. In addition to this measure, we actually work with our media team to look at our media target, not just at 21 plus, but 25 plus, and make sure we are not sort of falling below that 21 line. So depending on the medium we're in, we have additional measures to ensure that we are hitting the properly aged target. Requiring marketing affiliates to adhere to content controls with termination rights. As we work with our affiliate partners and all of our partners, quite honestly, any agency that is buying media or has the ability to put our marketing materials in front of a consumer, we have termination causes if any of our terms are not met in that process. Regular reviews of responsible marketing practices by the company's compliance committee. That committee consists of myself, a gentleman who sits on Ari and Alex's team, and a woman who sits on my team who is directly responsible for placing advertising. So really truly a connected team across both legal and marketing that addresses specifically this topic on a regular basis. And then lastly, removing self-excluded and otherwise prohibited players from our direct marketing opportunities. We have a single source of truth file that has all folks who have, you know, self-identified or have been excluded for other reasons that pushes through our entire tech stack and makes sure that whether we are, you know, as far as we can track them, we know that we are not marketing to those individuals. So both human and technology measures in place there to make sure we are marketing responsibly because again, it is such an important and integral part of our business. I think I'll throw it back to Alex to talk about technology training and operations. Great. Thanks, Jason. So, you know, Jason touched on this, but we really think it's our job to delight our fans and bring them closer to their favorite sports, the favorite teams, the favorite athletes, and to do that in a safe and responsible way. We recognize our responsibility to provide tools and resources to customers to help them manage their play and to keep sports wagering fun and enjoyable. And to deliver on that goal, we focus on four key areas. So the first is training. Before Fanatics takes a single bet for on our mobile platform, every company employee will be trained on responsible gaming matters. We're actually getting ready to kick that off just in a couple weeks. We expect that all joiners shortly after joining the company going forward will also receive the same training. We'll have refresher training annually and customer-facing employees such as customer service will receive additional enhanced responsible gaming training. In terms of technology, at a minimum, our platform will offer all regulatory-required tools and resources for our patrons. That will include, we'll talk more about it on the next slide, but daily, weekly, monthly limits on play and time spent on platform. We'll of course offer the ability for patrons to engage short-term or longer-term exclusions or timeouts. It will also make available national and state-specific resources so customers can reach out to those organizations as needed. I believe Jason just did a great job covering our position on responsible advertising. Just a note on the legal and compliance involvement. In addition to the team that Jason mentioned, we've also formed a compliance committee. That committee will approve our responsible gaming plan. We're filling that committee out with independent members in the first quarter of this year. Right now, we have two internal members on that committee. Lastly, from an operations perspective, we've committed to this early on. We already hired dedicated responsible gaming staff, both on the compliance team and on the operations team. We'll go through in just a minute the flow of how responsible gaming issues will be handled internally, but I also want to mention, we also have responsible gaming focus in our data science team. The folks that are helping us look into the data that we have and to spot concerns and areas where it might indicate problem gaming, we've already invested in that area as well. Again, when Scott goes through our product demonstration a bit later, he'll touch on and take you through in real time the tools that we have available, but just to touch on it, we'll have the daily, weekly, or monthly limits for wagers, deposits, as well as time spent on platform. We'll give patrons the ability to activate a reality check so that if they're on for 15, 20, 30 minutes, they can trigger a pop-up that reminds them of how long they've been on platform. Again, we'll allow for temporary or longer term suspensions to include lifetime, and then we will of course offer the self exclusion mechanism that is preferred by the MGC. Just to walk you all through how a responsible gaming concern is handled internally, there are really two ways it could surface. One would be through engagement with our customer service team who again will be trained on signs of problem gaming and how to detect and how to escalate those issues. The other is through our proactive steps with our data science team where they can look at play history, deposits, wager amounts, and flag for our our jobs team and our responsible gaming compliance team areas for concern. Those matters will be reviewed by trained specialists. They will action those cases in accordance with our responsible gaming plan and our policies and procedures, and then we'll log those cases in disposition so that if those customers engage with us in the future, we'll have a record of those actions. And with that, no questions, I'll hand things over to Kristen Lachman to cover our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Thanks. Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting us to speak to the commission. I'm Kristen Lachman, and I lead people for fanatics, betting, and gaming. In my role, I'm responsible for all strategic HR initiatives, including organizational planning and design, executive leadership, employee development and culture, engagement, talent acquisition, employee relation, diversity, and inclusion. And go to the next slide. The wider fanatics business has continually demonstrated its commitment to building a diverse and tolerant workplace. Over the last two years, fanatics brought on additional staff to build out its global inclusion team. Fanatics also leveraged internal and third-party data to understand the diversity of its workforce, expanded training, formed employee resource groups, and updated recruiting practices. In 2021, fanatics established a global inclusion team to set cross-functional strategies, establish goals, and facilitate the commitment to the idea initiative, which I'll walk you through. With support from executive leadership, the program has expanded and is now being adopted by each of the businesses under the broader Fanatics umbrella. The global inclusion team is led by a vice president who reports into the chief people officer of the holding company. His name is Orlando Ashford, and the team includes employees at different levels within the organization throughout communications, learning and development, recruiting, and people analytics departments. A Fanatics betting and gaming idea is led by me. Fanatics fosters an inclusive work environment for racial, ethnic, and gender diversity through the idea initiative. And through idea, Fanatics is committed to providing employees with transparent, fair, and inclusive processes, free from discrimination of any form. The mission is to build a comprehensive plan to drive a diverse culture of inclusion that influences employees, vendors, partners, and fans. Fanatics strives to reflect all communities where everyone feels empowered to bring their full authentic selves to work. Idea is a long-term journey that has been built with intention and with the help of all employees will play a role in creating and maintaining an organization with culture, diversity, and inclusion. There are four key pillars to the initiative, which are inclusion, belonging, knowing the reality of different groups and recognizing and accepting their challenges, contributions, strengths, diversity, which is representation at Fanatics, equality, which is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and access to opportunity where race or gender is not a determining factor in any decision, and finally advocacy, which includes intentional listening, understanding, and supporting each other being a champion, ally, or sponsor for someone not like you. If you go to the next slide, we'll look at some statistics. So to support our diversity and inclusion efforts, we have comprehensive employee data and reporting capabilities for full-time U.S. employees. Among the U.S. workforce, 48% of employees identify as racially or ethnically diverse and 54% identify as female. Some additional key statistics that are demonstrative of our commitment to diversity and inclusion are 19% of employees at the director and above level identify as racially or ethnically diverse. 33% of employees at the director and above level identify as female. 58% of new hires identify as racially or ethnically diverse. 51% of new hires identify as female. And about a third or over 23,000 of completed learning and development courses were idea-related. Fanatics utilizes several strategies to achieve its diversity and inclusion goals. We train all hiring managers on unconscious bias, and we target specific outreach to diverse candidates. Some of the resources we plan to use in 2023 to even better source diverse candidates include paid placement on minorities and sports network, power to fly where we can source female candidates, hosting jobs on the National Black Engineers Careers page, working with women in tech and out in tech. Given our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we've recently started including compensation ranges on our job postings, which will help create a more equitable compensation structure throughout the company, and is one step to prevent any gender or ethnicity-based compensation disparities. We invite our employees to share thoughts and ideas regarding diversity through networking events, celebrations, we have a Slack channel, we provide opportunities for training and development focused on diversity and inclusion, and facilitate community service opportunities even during the workday. We track diversity statistics, including in hiring and upward progress within the company, and share our findings with employees. Finally, we host two annual All Company DNI summits, which provide employees with training and seminars, as well as the opportunity to share input regarding the company's initiative. We have a Fanatics Ally Network, which consists of six employee-led employee resource groups, each with executive sponsors. Those are Women's Initiatives, Family First, Fanatics Global Block Alliance, Fanatics Multicultural, Fanatics Pride, and Fanatics Impact. And collectively, the fan groups help foster an inclusive culture at Fanatics through event hosting, community outreach, supporting and recruiting new talent, and contributing to business decisions. On the next slide, I'll share how we prioritize diverse suppliers. So Fanatics has demonstrated a commitment to working with small and diverse-owned businesses. In 2021, Fanatics partnered with supplier.io to analyze its data and create a baseline of spend on small and diverse-owned businesses. From 2020 to 2021, Fanatics Commerce increased the number of products available from diverse-owned businesses up by 80%. It also doubled the number of inclusive product offerings on its site, eclipsing $1 million in sales. And Fanatics Commerce's inclusive product offerings include a pride collection and assortment of products from historically Black colleges and universities. At the Bedding and Gaming Company specifically, we are in the beginning stages of our procurement DE&I efforts, but we're committed to cultural diversity and increasing opportunities for small businesses and women, or minority, which includes veteran-owned businesses. For 2023, that includes but is not limited to building and enhancing relationships with the organization to raise awareness and to identify qualified minority-owned vendors, ensuring that all qualified minority-owned businesses and business enterprises are given equal access to bid on service opportunities. We'll do this by ensuring all competitive bids include at least two vendors classified as minority women disadvantaged business enterprises. We'll also establish a baseline so we know how many of these companies we currently do business with and manage KPIs to help improve this metric. We'll create benchmarks for qualified minority suppliers spend across the organization with an initial target of 3% annual growth company-wide, and we'll update our RFP templates to require suppliers to provide their organization's commitment to DE&I. We'll comply with diversity plans developed by other leading gaming regulators. We're introducing a supplier database using Tealbook and supplier.io to identify MWTBE to help us build new relationships. And finally, we're including diversity and inclusion language into our vendor contract template to ensure vendor adherence to our policies and goals. And on my last slide, I'll talk about fanatics community engagement work. Fanatics has established a culture that will flow down into the gaming business that aims to address some of society's most pressing needs. From our CEO of the holding company, Michael Rubin, throughout all fanatics employees, the company has a culture of philanthropy. Our biggest initiatives are the Reform Alliance, which was co-founded by Michael Rubin with significant support from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. It seeks to transform probation and parole by changing laws, systems, and culture to create real pathways to work and well-being. The all-in challenge, which in 2020 was created in an effort to address food insecurity. Fanatics mobilized over 500 of the most popular teams, athletes, and celebrities, musicians, business leaders to challenge one another, to donate their most pride-free lifetime experiences that were made available in and sweepstakes to raise my wish. And the 2022 Special Olympic Games, Fanatics formed meaningful partnerships with both of these causes. With Make-A-Wish, Fanatics is providing monetary support and merchandise donations to help fulfill sports related wishes that bring hope and joy to children when they need it most. And with a first-of-its-kind merchandise partnership with the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, Fanatics provided donations of cash, apparel, and merchandise for athletes, as well as managed the e-commerce website and on-site retail during the games. And that concludes my slides. So I'll jump in. It's a pleasure to present a bit about our product to the commission. My name is Scott McClintic, Chief Product Officer of Fanatics Betting and Gaming. We can dive right in. So on the next slide. So on this one, the main takeaway is that all of the partners that we're working with from front-end partners to back-end partners all have proven experience in the US iGaming and sports betting category. It's really important to us that we not only focus on building a world-class user experience, but also the partners that we're working with are able to support us and have experience supporting other similar types of operators in the US market. So as Matt said, our core platform is powered by Amelko, specifically their player account management system and sports wagering system. In the purchase of Amelko source code, we are fanaticizing it, if you will. We are making that system work with some specific use cases that we have to bring that world-class experience to our customers. And so we will be bringing that in front of GLI for certification the next few weeks. And irrespective of the Fanatics version of Amelko, the Amelko system itself has already been certified by GLI previously and is already currently in operation in multiple jurisdictions across the US market, as well as powering other European operators for many, many years. And so we really value the Amelko partnership that we've got. When it comes to geolocation, we're working with GeoComply, the leader in the US market for KYC. We're going to be working with SoCure. I'll talk a bit more about what SoCure is going to be doing for us and why we're excited about their technology. For payment processing, we're working with PaySafe. PaySafe's Gateway unlocks a number of card processors and acquirers, as well as a bunch of the industry leading payment methods for deposits and withdrawals. We'll talk more about those specifically next. And then when it comes to the team, as Matt mentioned up front, Ian Botts leads our technology team, he's our CTO, previously with the head of engineering at Fandall. And I am the chief product officer leading our product and design team. And I held a similar position back at Marshall Sportsbook in Casino. The one thing I would mention is in the early days in early 2019, in terms of scaling up a team, building a product from scratch and trying to bring it to market through all the ups and flows and naturally comes with product development, that experience is very similar to the experience that we are going through right now as we've scaled up our team, building our product from scratch, and we'll soon be bringing it to market in the next month or so. So the next slide, the summary product and tech stack. So we can go on and on with boxes and boxes, but hopefully this organizes a lot of our key suppliers in a easy to digest way. So when it comes to the data feeds and the sportsbook side, we'll be working with all the major players, including sport radar, genius sports, IMG arena, stats performed, that will be fed directly into the MLCo trading platform for KYC. Secure is our partner for automated KYC verification. So all of the data put into registration fields that's passed at Secure will get a response back. Is it a pass? Is it a soft fail? Is it a fail? In the event of a soft fail, we'll be able to use Secure's Dock v ID upload to automatically and seamlessly get a customer from a soft fail to a hard pass. What that looks like is a customer would take a picture of a driver's license, a passport, or another piece of documentation, take a selfie, that would be passed to Secure. If the customer at that point still fails KYC, they would then be moved over to our customer service team to get them through the manual KYC approval process. When it comes to payments in fraud, as I said before, we're using PaySafe for their gateway. PaySafe enables us to use multiple card acquirers that we can route traffic for redundancy purposes to make sure that customers want to use Devin credit cards. They've got access to do that. Through PaySafe, we also will have access to PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, online banking, ACH, wire, and cash, and similar payment methods for withdrawals. We think that the variety of payment methods will be supporting both to get money on and off, will satisfy a lot of the different categories of the market. Then with respect to fraud, SIFT is our software partner. They're going to help us with fraud mitigation and identifying any suspicious or malicious activity. At the end of the day, we want customers to deposit seamlessly, get their money as quickly as possible. Sometimes that is not possible. Especially at scale, a company like SIFT can help us root out any suspicious activity. That way, a majority of the customers that are good actors are getting their money as quickly as possible. We can flag in a streamlined way any suspicious activity as it arises. When it comes to operations, Salesforce will be our backbone customer service platform for chat and also customer management. Ada is our chatbot service that will sit in front of the Salesforce chat service. Even integrations into things like withdrawal status, withdrawal timeline, how do I make a parlay bet, where is responsible gaming situated inside of the app? We're building in a lot of rules and logic to make sure that customers can get immediate responses in real time and deflect as much of that inbound traffic in the most common outgoing types of issues that customers typically have when they voice that they're having issues to an operator. We think that Ada can help solve those issues in real time and triage the issues for the customer. When it comes to marketing, we're going to be using OptiMove and AppsFlyer, both for cohort and segmentation, as well as mobile attribution. I think Matt alluded to this earlier that we are building native or building native for iOS and Android. The types of services are very effective in managing customer communications at scale. When it comes to player account management, trading platform, and middleware applications, all the necessary components of each one of these layers that need to be in-state on server to satisfy the YRAC will be. The PAM is via MLCO, the trading platform is via MLCO. We are building a lot of custom middleware applications to make the MLCO system, work with the user experience you want to bring to our customers, and so we are co-developing select middleware applications, things like proxy layers and aggregation layers to make sure that the front end UI and UX works really quickly, is reliable, and does what we want it to do. Geo-compliance is going to be satisfied by Geo-compliance we talked about, and then for redundancy, resiliency, and scalability, we are leaning on AWS, both for their cloud services outside of state, as well as their outposts inside of state, so we replicate the stability that AWS provides for a bunch of other very proven and large technology companies. The last thing I would say is a majority of the work thus far for the Fanatics product, engineering, and design teams is really focused on that front end application, so as we want to build out unique and rewarding loyalty types of experiences for our customers, we have full control over that, and we'll talk more about what that looks like in the product demonstration. So I think I'm going to pass it back over to Alex and Adam. Thanks, Scott. Adam Berger back here explaining Alex Smith for a moment on camera. At this point, we'd welcome the opportunity to do a product demonstration for the commissioners. We'd ask that we handle that demonstration in executive session. As we previewed earlier, not only were we a private company, we're a company that has not yet launched, so our entire user interface, as well as many unique features of our sportsbook product, have never been seen before outside of the Fanatics internal company. And as we understand, we want the commissioners to understand and staff to understand the full capabilities and offerings that we plan to present in Massachusetts. But again, we would request that under Massachusetts law, this would be considered competitively sensitive, trade secret, and otherwise proprietary and therefore right for executive session discussion, as opposed to discussion during the public hearing. And with that, the other point I'll just make, too, is other than the product demonstration, this will conclude our affirmative presentation that commissions were also available to answer any questions the commissioners may have. If you prefer, we go that route before a demonstration. Okay. Mr. Smith, would it be possible for you to just lower the screen so I can see you on my fellow commissioners so we can digest this? Thank you. So this presents a different challenge. This applicant has had a different juncture in its development of his product and has requested an executive session to go over our technology, their technology, that technology we'll be considering. I'm looking for our general counsel. There he is. Thank you. So, and I want to also go over process. Typically, we have this in mind as we go through our application. I know that often we keep executive session questions to the end so that we can do them all at once, but I think this is an important part of the background. So first, we have to consider, is it appropriate for executive session? And then second, is it appropriate for us to go into executive session now? So, Todd? So as you noted, this is slightly different than the other matters we have considered in the commission has moved to go into executive session four. On its face, at least parts of it would seem to fit within the standard set out in section 6i in that they could involve competitively sensitive or other proprietary information, the disclosure which would place the applicant at a competitive disadvantage. I think though that we would need to take some care as to identify what exactly, which parts of the presentation, if not all of it, would fall into that category. I do recall that at least some shots of the product were shown in the PowerPoint, so it may be that not all of the demonstration needs to take place there, but you know, I think that that would be the only concern that we talk about too much in executive session, but I think certainly some parts of it are appropriate to do so. Can I ask one clarifying question with respect to Maryland and the other state that you have approval, Illinois? That would be Ohio at this point. Ohio, I'm sorry, yeah, Ohio with that very first deadline. Exactly. A gift to our regulator. So did you present publicly your technology or were you too early? We did not, neither jurisdiction required public hearing with the presentation of technology at that point. We did submit full applications that were considered confidential in all respects in those two states. So this would be the first time we would ever present our product, like you said, outside the fanatics organization. Really, and just to address, you know, attorney Grossman's comment, we did share certain parts of our technology platform, various features of it that were comfortable sharing that we don't consider to be proprietary or that would put us at a competitive disadvantage, but again, the look, feel operation, which is what we'd like to show you in executive session, we do consider to be proprietary trade secret, and would put us at competitive disadvantage, given that we're still a couple months out from launch of our product, unlike other, you know, other applicants who have products that are very similar to their Massachusetts product that they're already offering in, you know, one, two, or in some cases, you know, dozens of states. Counselor? I mean, if they're telling us that this is proprietary, it seems to fall within that construct. And I think it would be appropriate to move into executive session, begin the review, and take a look. And certainly, if in the course of the review, it seems as though some of this is not fall within that category, we can move out of executive session. So I think it would be appropriate to at least start in that forum and go from there. So could I just ask one question, though? The two that you have the licenses in didn't require this, you've got applications pending in what five other jurisdictions? Correct. Is that, is that answer whole true for anything that's in the public domain and those other jurisdictions? It does. Yes, we've not had to share with any of those other five to this point. And if we did, you know, and if we were, there was a public hearing, we would seek similar confidentiality protections to extent allowed under the laws of those jurisdictions. Commissioners, I think I would like to to have the demonstration. So I don't think I don't know if we would want to entertain waiving the demonstration. I think that's actually advantageous for the applicant. And I certainly would want to see the components. I see Commissioner Maynard. You're agreeing with that? Like you also. I'm agreeing with that, Madam Chair. I want to see it for sure. Yeah. And I think what I'm hearing from Councillor Grossman is that, you know, if it turns out that there's something that really is the public domain, I think we can rely on Mr. Smith and his client to say, you know what, this can come back out and we'll have executive session and we'll bring it to the public's attention. 100%. Just clarify, I'm Madam Berger, Alex Smith, a step aside for a moment. I'm just on his side. I apologize, but I'm thinking, I know you're Mr. Berger who's representing them, right? You're the outside councillor. Exactly. My apologies. You were psychologically a little challenged over here. That little name thing does, it's a trigger for me, so it's my apologies. I know you were not Mr. Smith. I don't know why I said that. So thank you. So as councillor, you would say to your client, you know, this is in fact a public domain and we shift back. Commissioners, are we comfortable? We'd have to, you know, entertain it through the process in a formal vote. And if so, are we comfortable at this juncture? I'm seeing thumbs up and I assume to votes, right? Commissioner Hill, this juncture in it, okay. All right. Am I not hearing any objections? Commissioner Skinner, your thoughts? I'm comfortable moving forward in the fashion that has been requested. Thank you. And Commissioner Maynard? Yes. Commissioner Bryan? It sounds appropriate to me. Okay. So with that said, two points. I'll need some help. This would be restricted to just the section 6i, right? You know, so we're on just for everyone following along. This is number 11 on the agenda, I believe, Madam Chair. And I would suggest that it is clearly 6i. It might also include some items in section 10, which involve cybersecurity. So I think we would want to move under that provision as well. Okay. And then once I read it in, we would need a motion. I am going to make also a scheduling request to Mr. King and your team. I'm not sure if you heard us earlier, but there were two of us who had a wonderful invitation by our former boss. And I guess Commissioner Maynard thinks I'm a faster sprinter than he is. So we were thinking we might try to lead to the State House for a 330 order for commitment. And then I know we had another commissioner with a deadline. So from my perspective, we go into executive session. Do you think that the demonstration will be about a half an hour? I think that's appropriate. Okay. And then so the reason why I'm asking that is because it's important under the law for me to inform the public that we would not be convening in public session at the conclusion of any anticipated second session. Commissioner, are you fine with that? I have a question. With that half an hour, I mean, will we have an opportunity to ask questions or will we be expected to do that in a public setting, perhaps tomorrow? Well, that is a really good question. Is the demonstration, we probably have to ask any questions that would be related to the need for an executive session would have to be answered in executive session. So if we ran over, could we convene an executive session tomorrow morning, Todd? Yeah, we can. I was just looking at the agenda for tomorrow, January 5th, and this matter is fully marked up in the same manner it is for today. So yes, and just to put a finer point on that, we wouldn't be reconvening publicly today, but we would be reconvening publicly after the executive session. And even if we didn't finish the executive session, we would start in the public and then we zone the executive session. Yes, that's perfectly okay. Okay, does that help Commissioner Skinner? It does, but if that's the case, I would suggest that we adjourn for this afternoon and pick up with the demonstration tomorrow while the information and presentation is fresh in our minds. Mitchers, what do you think, Mr. Mayer? It's fine with me. But I also understand the other commitments, so I'm fine to suspend and then just dive in tomorrow morning. Well, I guess I didn't want to make it about our other commitment, but I'm hearing is the, in my read that the presentation will go a full half an hour or just a life that it go. Do you have an idea? I think Scott, probably presentation will be 20 minutes. Yeah. And then we could leave. I don't know that we want to rush it though, Madam Chair. I mean, I want you guys to be able to go, but Commissioner Skinner, we don't know how many questions. So yeah, the 20 minutes we might be talking about, does it just make sense to dive right in in the morning? Yeah, and I'm fine with continuing on this afternoon, but just with that caveat, I want to make sure that I have the opportunity to ask questions again, what, you know, right on the heels of the presentation. Okay, so you really want it to be right on the heels and that might become problematic, as opposed to rolling it over tomorrow. So with that, the applicant, again, I appreciate your flexibility as we work as a five-person commission together. And I guess that what we'll do is we will adjourn our public meeting. In the morning, we will resume this public meeting, and then we'll go into the motion that are necessary to put us into executive session for the technology piece that will follow our partners, IEB, GLI and RSM. And then we'll go into our review of the application, section by section. But I think the technology really informs our review of the application. So again, there's an indulgence here for some commitments. And I personally appreciated and was scolded by my spouse that I didn't hear to bring it up today, so thank you. So thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to attend this today. So does that work for you, Mr. King? It certainly works. And we'll make ourselves available at any need of the commission. So tomorrow we have our agenda setting meeting at nine, and then we convene this, we reconvene this at 10. It's a start of a new public meeting, but really a reconvening of the matter. Is that correct, Todd? It's actually marked up for 10.30. I'm just looking at the agenda now. Okay. Probably baking in a buffer for- We have agenda setting. Yeah, I know. I just mentioned that. I didn't realize that we were, as Commissioner Brown, we baked in that buffer. Okay. Then we would be starting at 10.30. Again, thank you to the applicant for your patience with our busy schedule. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. We'll go to work out nicely for you folks. Okay. All right. So with that, commissioners, do I have a motion to adjourn this public meeting? Or is there any other business? Okay. There's no other business. Second. All right. Commissioner Brian. Hi. Commissioner Hill. Hi. Commissioner Skinner. Hi. Commissioner Maynard. Hi. And I vote yes. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. I also appreciate the applicants wanting to say that before we- Thank you. Yeah. And I should have allowed for that. And we just thank you and we'll see you tomorrow.