NY Sportsbooks Report Impressive March Volume

With the start of March 2023, mobile sports betting is again on the rise across New York State. This week, the New York State Gaming Commission issued its latest numbers, which confirmed that for the week concluding on March 12, 2023, local sportsbook apps handled US$442.7 million in wagers. This was an improvement over the prior week’s results.

New York’s mobile sports wagering market start to accept bets on January 8, 2022, and thanks to its passionate residents, it quickly became one of the leading sectors in the U.S. For its first year of operations, the market contributed just over US$700 million in tax revenue to the local budget, with another US$200 coming from operator licensing fees.

Volume Heat Up in March

After the cooldown in betting volume after the Super Bowl in February, bettors are starting to get active in the first weeks of March. In its latest report, the NYSGC confirmed that for the week ending on March 12, 2023, sports betting apps saw a wagering volume of US$442.7 million. This is a solid improvement over the previous week’s US$410.8 million.

And with the increase in wagering volume, gross gaming revenue for the said week also saw a spike in numbers. For the week of March 12, 2023, operators reported pre-tax revenue of US$40.4 million, which is a major uptick over the prior week’s US$25.8 million. This translated to a good hold of operators of 9.1%, which was also an improvement over the past week’s hold of 6.3%.

Operator-wise, FanDuel remained the leader in the market, as the app handled the largest amount of wagers for the week in question. The sportsbook recorded a betting activity of US$185 million out of a total of US$442.7 million. This amount rendered approximately US$20.9 million in revenue, up from its last week’s number of just US$8 million.

Meanwhile, DraftKings also kept its second-best title in the state, as it reported US$147.8 million in betting volume and approximately US$11.7 million in gross gaming proceeds. Then third, Caesars Sportsbook got US$58 million in volume and US$3.9 million in GGR. BetMGM was fourth with a betting activity of US$27 million and just US$2.5 million in gross proceeds.

The month of February was also a solid month for the Empire State in terms of digital sports wagers, as it recorded some major Super Bowl betting activity. For the month, the state generated US$1.47 billion in handle with a hold of 7.4% for operators. This translated to US$108.2 million in online sports wagering revenue which was lower than in the past several months.

iGaming is Off for 2023

After the success of mobile sports wagering, New York legislators were also looking to introduce online casino games for 2023. However, it seems that this will not be the case as the Assembly and Senate released their one-house budget proposals. Prior to that, Gov. Kathy Hochul also left the item out of her plans for 2023, which put its chances to rest.

Source: Zochodne, Geoff “Sports Betting Sites Gather More March Momentum in New York” Covers, March 16, 2023