New York State has issued the weekly numbers for its mobile sports betting market, and this time the total wagering handle has bounced up. However, the numbers are not in favour of sportsbooks as they saw a decrease in hold for the week ending on June 4, 2023. Meanwhile, they generated a total volume of US$299.9 million in digital wagers.
The Empire State’s mobile sports betting market operates under a limited operator model, allowing for nine state-licensed sportsbooks to legally offer and accept wagers on various sporting events. It kicked off work on January 8, 2022, and it reaped tremendous success for its first 12 months as it accumulated just over US$700 million in tax revenue for the state.
Handle Goes Up but Hold Stumbles Down
New York State Gaming Commission’s latest report disclosed that for the week of June 4, hold for operators dropped to 8.4%. Although the handle saw a 14.5% increase to US$299.9 million, revenue plummeted by nearly 40% to US$25.3 million. This marked the second consecutive period with wagers below US$300 million, and the second time in the last three weeks that revenue dropped below US$35 million.
Despite the recent dip, there is positive year-over-year growth. In the same period of 2022, New York’s operators generated a handle of US$270.6 million with revenue just under US$11 million. These figures indicate a promising trend for the sports betting industry in the state, highlighting the potential for future recovery and expansion.
FanDuel claimed the top spot with a handle of US$121 million. However, despite a strong win rate of 17.3% last week, its hold dropped to 10%, resulting in revenue of US$12.1 million, the third consecutive week below $20 million. DraftKings followed closely in second place with a handle of $105 million, experiencing a 25% increase week-over-week. Despite this growth, their revenue fell behind FanDuel at $8.3 million as their hold declined from 10% to 7.9%.
Meanwhile, Caesars and BetMGM both posted win rates below 7%. Caesars earned US$2.2 million from a handle of US$34.6 million, while BetMGM recorded a handle of US$23.2 million with revenue of US$1.6 million. Among the operators, Wynn Interactive was the only one to finish with a loss, collecting US$1.6 million in wagers and experiencing a net loss of US$64,794 after payouts.
Monthly Handle Decreases in May
It should be also mentioned that the month of May was largely slower in terms of mobile sports betting activity in New York. In May the state reported US$1.358 billion in total handle. For comparison in March, the state clocked over US$1.7 billion in wagers. However, back then there was March Madness and more sporting events for local fans to wager on.
Then April was also a relatively busy month in terms of sports betting as the nine operators recorded a lower handle of approximately US$1.5 billion. That was 13% lower than March’s total volume but it was also an 11% improvement over the same month last year when the handle hit US$1.47 billion. Tax revenue for the month hit US$139.2 million for the state.
