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Massachusetts Lottery players can now play virtual horse racing online. Inspired Entertainment launched Post Time Payout on the state’s iLottery platform, becoming the first third-party game content provider to do so, the company announced Oct. 21.
The launch comes less than three months after the lottery began selling games online July 27, and online sales are exceeding expectations, Massachusetts Lottery Executive Director Mark William Bracken told the state Lottery Commission.
Virtual horse racing arrives on iLottery
Post Time Payout is Inspired’s virtual horse racing game. The races are computer-generated and held on a schedule, so players don’t have to wait for live competition.
A random number generator selects the winners, and the race only reveals the result, Bracken said. The game regulations the commission approved unanimously state that the race display does not determine whether a wager wins. “It has nothing to do with live racing,” Bracken said.
Inspired’s games reach players through Fusion, an aggregation platform from Aristocrat Interactive, the company the lottery selected to run its first iLottery program. Inspired President and CEO Brooks Pierce called being the first third-party provider on the platform “an important milestone” for the company.
Online lottery sales exceed early expectations
The lottery sells games online through its website and mobile app. Online play is limited to people 21 and older in Massachusetts, while the minimum age for retail purchases remains 18. Profits from online lottery sales fund early childhood education and care grants, and traditional lottery revenue continues to support local aid for cities and towns.
The first full month, August, brought in $139.4 million in online sales and an estimated $10.6 million in profit, WBUR reported. Nearly all of the sales, $137 million, came from eInstant games, which work like virtual scratch tickets. Bracken said profit would be closer to $8 million once August’s bills were paid.
September online sales reached $183 million, with $14 million in net profit, NBC Boston reported. Through the first three months of fiscal 2027, online sales totaled $322.4 million, while retail sales fell $81.2 million. Combined sales reached $1.72 billion, up 16.3% from the same period last year.
The lottery had estimated $1.2 billion in net online wagers for its first year, Bracken said, and it has already reached about $500 million. He said the lottery is “wildly exceeding anyone’s expectations.”
National gambling opponents have criticized the online games, saying their design features exploit younger users’ vulnerabilities, WBUR reported.
Inspired grows its North American footprint
Inspired supplies virtual sports to licensed lottery and gaming operators in regulated markets worldwide, through both online and retail channels. The Massachusetts launch extends that business into a new online lottery market and adds to its presence in North America, the company said.
Bracken said the lottery will keep adding games as it builds its iLottery offering. Chris Shaban, Aristocrat Interactive’s managing director of iLottery, said Inspired brings a strong track record in virtual sports. The announcement did not name any additional Inspired games for the platform.
