New York has recorded another important milestone in terms of mobile sports betting. The end of August 2023 marked a total of US$1 billion in online gross gaming revenue for 2023. All of the proceeds arrived from its mobile sportsbooks, with the exception of US$5.4 million which was generated by the four commercial casinos in the upstate region.
The Empire State has operated a mobile sports betting market since January 2022 but in no time the sector transformed into the top one for legal online wagers on sports in the U.S. In its first 12 months, it produced just over US$700 million in tax revenue from betting volume, which will be invested in education, youth sports, and fighting problem gambling.
More Than US$500M in Taxes Already
So far, the gross gaming proceeds from sports betting of over US$1.12 billion have translated into more than US$500 million in tax revenue for the state. For August the state took in US$50.3 million. This moved the total for the first eight months of the year to over US$520 million, which is almost US$121 million more than the same period in 2022.
Meanwhile, for August 2023, DraftKings reported the highest wagering handle among operators with US$446.9 million. FanDuel which usually leads the pack was second with US$409.1 million in volume. Caesars Sportsbook was in third with approximately US$120.1 million in accepted wagers, while BetMGM was in fifth place with US$70.5 million in handled bets.
Bally Bet did not contribute to the handle or revenue for the second month in a row, as the company went offline in the state to migrate its sports betting platform to Kambi. The process kicked off in late June 2023, and in addition to New York, it suspended operations in several other U.S. states. But recently the sportsbook went online in Ohio and said it will renew work in NY soon.
On Friday, the state issued its latest numbers on the mobile sports betting market for the week ending on September 3, 2023. The current eight online sportsbooks had a combined betting volume of US$312.8 million, which was a solid upgrade from the previous week. But despite the increased betting volume, the operators combined only for US$8.3 million in gross proceeds.
In terms of land-based sportsbooks for August, the four commercial casinos produced US$737,408 in revenue with 13.7% in hold. Tioga Downs recorded its year’s best US$121,328 in 21.8% hold. Del Lago Resort disclosed revenue of US$208,000 with its best hold of the year at 23.9%, while Rivers Casino in Schenectady led the group with US$221,000.
Educating Local Bettors
With the rapidly expanding sports betting market, New York Senator Joe Addabbo, D-Queens thought it would be a good idea to host an online seminar on problem gambling. His virtual seminar will be on September 13, 2023, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Zoom. The ID for the Zoom meeting is 840 5365 7492, the passcode is 767130 and the meeting is anonymous.
Source: Altruda, Chris “New York Tops $1 Billion In Sports Wagering Revenue For 2023” Sports Handle, September 11, 2023