New York Poised For $2 Billion Sports Wagering Handle In January

Already responsible for the top seven national monthly sports wagering handles in the post-PASPA era, New York has put itself in position to claim another milestone: the first $2 billion monthly handle in the United States.

The New York State Gaming Commission released mobile betting figures Thursday for the week ending Jan. 22, and the $450.7 million in wagers accepted by the Empire State’s nine mobile operators was the third highest in 55 weeks worth of reports. More importantly, New York is less than $503,000 from eclipsing its record $1.69 billion established last January when it launched mobile wagering and needs operators to accept just $314.3 million in wagers over the final nine days of January to reach the previously unfathomable $2 billion benchmark.

This January is different in that mobile operators are not battling each other for customers with stupendous promotional offers. That took place with the much-anticipated launch last year, highlighted by Caesars Sportsbook matching initial deposits up to $3,000 along with an initial $300 free bet.

The $314.3 million needed from Jan. 23-31 to reach $2 billion is less than the median of all weekly handles reported, which was nearly $330 million for the week ending Sept. 11.

New York capped its first year of mobile wagering with close to $16.3 billion in overall action, quickly clearing out a top-five space for itself in all-time handle during the post-PASPA era behind New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, and will be more than halfway to its neighbor’s nation-leading total of $33.7 billion.

And, oh by the way, a record revenue week

January 1/16-22 mobile #SportsBetting thread for #NewYork via @NYSGamingComm. Fun with numbers (2/x)

With 9 days left to report, NY is $502,571 shy of breaking its national handle record set Jan. ’22.

It is $9,925,472 from breaking its revenue record set Nov. ’22.

16/x

— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) January 27, 2023

About the only variable in play to prevent a $2 billion handle is a dramatic fall-off on NFL playoff wagering with the Buffalo Bills eliminated in the divisional round last weekend. Last year, week-over-week wagering dropped 21.5% from the $572.6 million — still the top weekly handle all-time — to $449.3 million during conference championship week. A similar drop in percentage this year would result in handle of $353.8 million, nearly $40 million above what is required without including the final two days of the month.

The week of Jan. 16-22, which included the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, was a bloodbath for the New York betting public as FanDuel, DraftKings, BetRivers, and Bally Bet all posted record weekly revenue figures. The overall total of nearly $57.5 million in revenue demolished the previous record of $44.5 million set for the week ending Dec. 11, while the healthy 12.8% hold ranked fifth all-time. The big week also put New York operators within $10.7 million in revenue of the first $150 million monthly haul for any state.

FanDuel and DraftKings each set weekly company revenue and handle records in New York. FanDuel walloped the public with a 14.6% win rate to keep $26.6 million of the $182.4 million wagered. It bettered its previous revenue high of $22.1 million set the week ending April 17.

DraftKings crossed the $20 million revenue mark for the first time, finishing nearly a quarter-million above that total. It had a 13.3% hold on $152.4 million handle, easily crushing its revenue record of $14 million for the week ending Oct 9.

BetRivers, whose previous lone week above $1 million in revenue came Nov. 6 and by only $6,308, upped its best week to more than $1.1 million while notching a 10.4% hold on $10.9 million worth of accepted bets. It was only the fourth time BetRivers had a hold above 10% and was its highest since the 24.2% reached during launch week last year.

Bally Bet, which was the last of the mobile operators to open for business, had a robust 23.2% hold to claim $55,000 from $237,000 wagered. Its previous high for weekly revenue was $35,918 for the period ending Aug. 28.

While Caesars did not set any handle or revenue records, it also enjoyed a solid week with a 10.6% win rate providing $6.1 million in revenue from $57.5 million handle. Amazingly, ResortsWorld Bet posted a loss of nearly $39,000 for the week, marking its seventh weekly loss since launching in March — the most losing weeks among New York’s mobile books.

PointsBet had one of its top-five all-time New York revenue hauls at $918,000 for the week, while WynnBET had a 3.7% hold that led to $108,000 in revenue. Bettors using the WynnBET app in the Empire State have proven tough to beat as the operator has failed to post even a 6% hold for any of the last 11 weeks.