Just over a year after the introduction of legal mobile sports betting in New York, the state outperformed expectations and set numerous records. The week ending on March 12, 2023, marked another important achievement for the sector, as the weekly wagering volume, put the Empire State’s total betting handle over the US$20 billion threshold.
On January 8, 2022, a total of four sportsbook apps debuted in the state’s first online sports betting market. Throughout last year, all nine bookmakers went online. For its first year, the state receive just over US$700 million from bets, and another US$200 million from licensing fees, which will now be invested in education, youth sports, and tackling problem gambling.
Another Major Milestone Hit
The latest report from the New York State Gaming Commission saw that the state generated US$442.7 million in online sports betting handle for March 12, 2023. With that amount, the Empire State reached another important milestone, as it hit US$20.2 billion in handled wagers, which translated into over US$1.6 billion in gross gaming revenue or US$850 million in tax proceeds.
For the last 14 months of online sports betting, with the exception of a few weeks at the start. FanDuel has been the undisputed leader among locally operating sportsbooks. Since its launch in the sector, the mobile app collected the largest amount of wagers with around US$8.2 billion, which corresponds to over 40% of the total market share at that time.
Meanwhile, DraftKings was second since its launch, and the company is responsible for handling 29% share of the market or US$5.9 billion of wagers since its launch. Then the top three is completed by Caesars Sportsbook which kicked off strong but its volume cooldown after a while. The app has handled 16% of the total cut. The three operators hold 85% of the market share.
For the whole of 2022, the Empire State handled over US$16.2 billion in online sports bets, and it was estimated that in 2023 numbers will come close to approximately US$13.9 billion. However, thanks to the strong first two months it was readjusted to US$16.3 billion. More landmarks are about to be hit, as the state draws near to US$2 billion in gross gaming revenue.
More from the NY Market
A year after the launch of the new market, New York’s Problem Gambling Resource Center is looking to examine its effects of it on the local population. Jeffrey Wierzbicki from the organization said the calls for help doubled in volume last year. He also remarked that the NYPGRC noticed that the 18-35 demographic has been the most affected one.
Luckily for the organization and those others who specialize in fighting problem gambling, the Empire State will not expand its industry with the addition of iGaming in 2023. This become evident after the Assembly and Senate released their one-house budgets for the year, and the vertical was missing from both. Thus putting its chances for 2023 to around zero.
