New York Tops $1 Billion In Sports Wagering Revenue For 2023

New York sportsbooks put together another solid month in August, claiming $99.2 million in adjusted gross revenue as the overall total for the calendar year surpassed $1 billion.

The New York State Gaming Commission reported sports wagering handle totaling $1.12 billion, with all but $5.4 million originating from mobile operators. It was the 16th time in 20 months of online wagering that the Empire State has topped $1 billion in wagers, with August’s total up 27.4% compared to the $877.4 million for the same month last year.

The statewide hold was 8.9%, as operators saw their 12-month streak of revenues totaling $100 million or more come to end. August’s revenue was the fourth-lowest of New York’s mobile era, which began in January 2022, and was the lightest figure since the $73.9 million in July 2022.

With over $1 billion in 2023 revenue also comes more than $500 million in state tax revenue, as New York’s coffers had an inflow of $50.3 million from sports wagering in August. That lifted the total for the first eight months of the year to $520 million, nearly $121.8 million more than last year’s total through August.

Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo projected sports wagering taxes to be at least $500 million annually when he pushed to legalize it with the current 51% tax. Operators made $693.9 million worth of tax payments last year and are on pace for $800 million in 2023, provided revenue figures are consistent with the final four months of 2022.

DraftKings tops for handle

August #SportsBetting numbers 🧵for #NewYork via @NYSGamingComm. Han/Rev/WR by mobile operator (4/9)@DKSportsbook
Aug: $446.95M/$35.46M/7.93%
YTD: $3.94B/$331.6M/8.42%

11/x #sportsbettingtwitter #GamblingTwitter

— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) September 8, 2023

DraftKings claimed the top spot for handle among the eight operators conducting wagering with $446.9 million. That was an 82.8% increase compared to the previous August and was aided by a strong opening week of the month, in which it posted all-time weekly records of $161.4 million handle and $25.1 million in revenue between July 30 and August 6.

It was the second time in three months that DraftKings beat out FanDuel for the No. 1 handle spot, also doing so in June with $488.5 million worth of wagers. DraftKings finished with nearly $35.5 million in winnings for August, good for a 7.9% hold that was more than four percentage points lower than its all-time monthly high of 12.1% in July.

FanDuel, meanwhile, ran its streak of double-digit holds to six months after crafting a win rate of 10.3% in August. It kept $42 million of its $409.1 million handle as it entered September less than $7.8 million from half a billion dollars in revenue for 2023. FanDuel has posted holds of 8.3% or higher for 18 consecutive months, with 15 of them topping 10%, and its hold for 2023 is 11%.

Caesars and BetMGM maintained their strong holds on third and fourth place, respectively. Caesars came close to an 8% hold for August, claiming $9.6 million in revenue from $120.1 million worth of wagers, and BetMGM had the second-highest win rate for the month at 9.3%, reaping over $6.5 million from handle totaling $70.5 million.

BetRivers rounded out the top five, finishing less than $7,000 shy of $3 million in revenue on the strength of an 8.2% hold from $36.3 million handle. Its wagering activity was more than PointsBet, WynnBET, and ResortsWorld combined, as that trio accounted for $29.8 million worth of wagers while winning nearly $2 million.

Bally Bet did not take any wagers for the second consecutive month as it continues to migrate its sports betting platform to Kambi. That process started in late June, and there has been no timetable offered for when Bally’s will relaunch except that it is expected to be before the end of the year.

New York’s $11.2 billion in total handle is up 9.4% compared to the first eight months of 2022, while the $1.02 billion in revenue is a 30.6% increase. The statewide hold of 9.1% is an increase of nearly 1.5 percentage points versus last year.

Tioga moves closer to breaking even

The state’s four commercial retail sportsbooks combined for $737,408 in revenue, as the hold of nearly 13.7% was the highest since reaching 13.8% last December.

Though year-to-date in-person handle is down 12.2% compared to last year at $49.5 million, revenue is up 31.5% to $2.9 million as the brick-and-mortar venues collectively had small gains in the early part of the year compared to digging out of a $571,000-plus hole created in the opening two months of 2022.

That said, Tioga Downs is still in the red for 2023. The Nichols-based sportsbook has paid out $61,585 above the $4.1 million in accepted wagers thus far, but put a big dent in the deficit in August with a year-best $121,328 to more than cancel out July’s loss of $113,752. Tioga’s 21.8% hold was its best since posting a 27.3% win rate last Septmber.

Del Lago Resort also had its best hold of the year at 23.9%, keeping more than $208,000. Rivers Casino led the foursome with just above $221,000, aided by a 22.5% bump in handle from last August to $2.9 million.