New York State’s online sports betting market has started to recover from its summer slump, as sports leagues from around the globe kick off their seasons. The latest reports from the New York State Gaming Commission confirm that for the first time since June 27, 2022, the weekly wagering volume for mobile betting has surpassed the US$200 million threshold.
The Empire State’s internet market for sports wagers is rather new as it officially started to accept online bets on January 8, 2022. Despite its limited model of online nine operators the state quickly transformed into the capital of online sports betting in the U.S. as it has now generated more than US$9 billion in total handle.
Volume Recovers Slowly
In its latest report the New York State Gaming Commission reported that for the fourth week in a row, the handle has been bullish. For the week that concluded on August 21, 2022, the nine sportsbooks generated a total of US$200.1 million in an online handle. This is the first time since June 27, 2022, that the handle has returned about the US$200 million mark.
This amount is still down from the weekly average since the start of the online market, but it is a sign that the state is once again seeing an increase in sports betting volume. This is due to the fact that the NFL kicked off its preseason games, and it is on schedule to return in September for official games. The summer season has been quite dry as the MLB was the only major league running.
With the NFL and college football seasons being just two weeks away, it is expected another boom in mobile sports betting in the state. It is safe to say that New York bettors are major fans of football. According to a report from GeoComply, an impressive 25% of all bets placed on this year’s Super Bowl have come from the Empire State.
Since its launch, the market has accumulated over US$348 million in tax revenue for the state. This week, Rob Williams, Executive Director for the NYSGC said that the state could easily cross US$500 million in tax with a full NFL season. And according to estimations, US$500 million in tax would put the current total handle of US$9.7 billion to around US$14 billion.
Future of the Industry
In a recent interview, New York Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow spoke on the future of the sports betting sector in the Empire State. The Co-Chair of the New York Assembly Committee on Racing and Gaming claimed that the new online market has been a success which is evident with the millions of tax revenue it has brought to the state’s coffers.
However, even he admits that one of the issues of the market is the tax rate of 51% for licensed operators. Mr. Pretlow shared that sportsbooks’ promotions have drastically decreased over the last few months. And he believes that the solution would be to lower the tax rate to 37% or 38%, which would facilitate the introduction of more operators.
Source: McQuillan, Sam “New York Sports Betting Posts First $200 Million Week Since June” Action Network, August 25, 2022
