Mobile NY sports betting racked up more than $350 million in handle even in a slow week for major US sports.
The seven online NY sportsbooks combined for $353.4 million in handle for the week ending Feb. 20. Operators averaged a 7.2% hold for $25.4 million in sports betting revenue.
Thanks to New York’s 51% tax rate, that means sportsbooks owe the state nearly $13 million in taxes from that week.
NY sports betting still booming in February
February has a much slower major sports schedule than January with the NFL wrapped up outside of the Super Bowl and breaks for both the NBA and NHL All-Star games.
New Yorkers are finding plenty to bet, though, with more than $1.1 billion already on the books through 20 days in February:
| Handle | Revenue | Hold | Taxes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FanDuel | $420,609,082 | $11,728,556 | 2.8% | $5,981,564 |
| DraftKings | $292,285,621 | $21,992,390 | 7.5% | $11,216,119 |
| Caesars | $248,278,372 | $15,723,021 | 6.3% | $8,018,741 |
| BetMGM | $112,493,398 | $1,578,447 | 1.4% | $805,008 |
| PointsBet | $36,434,461 | $2,419,129 | 6.6% | $1,233,756 |
| BetRivers | $27,646,249 | $1,347,320 | 4.9% | $687,133 |
| WynnBET | $2,861,466 | $419,778 | 14.7% | $214,087 |
| Total | $1,140,608,649 | $55,208,641 | 4.8% | $28,156,407 |
Will FanDuel lead NY sports betting?
The picture of which sportsbook New Yorkers favor is becoming clearer as we move away from opening weekend and the promo dollars that came with it.
FanDuel Sportsbook was the favorite for the week ending Feb. 20. It was the only operator to pass $100 million in handle and commanded 37% handle share and 48.3% revenue share.
| Handle | Revenue | Hold | Taxes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FanDuel | $130,615,127 | $12,298,065 | 9.4% | $6,272,013 |
| DraftKings | $93,866,155 | $4,463,927 | 4.8% | $2,276,603 |
| Caesars | $65,811,646 | $4,228,911 | 6.4% | $2,156,745 |
| BetMGM | $39,060,165 | $2,120,843 | 5.4% | $1,081,630 |
| PointsBet | $13,819,780 | $1,577,153 | 11.4% | $804,348 |
| BetRivers | $8,750,825 | $535,745 | 6.1% | $273,230 |
| WynnBET | $1,508,285 | $212,059 | 14.1% | $108,150 |
| Total | $353,431,983 | $25,436,703 | 7.2% | $12,972,719 |
DraftKings Sportsbook looks to be solidly in the No. 2 position if these trends continue with 26.6% handle share. That’s 8 percentage points higher than third-place Caesars’ share for the week.
Where will Caesars wind up?
A combination of plenty of face time with Caesar and the Manning family, and the richest NY sportsbook promo offer at launch helped Caesars grab an early lead in New York.
Both of those elements are largely over, though. There might be another wave of signups before March Madness betting, of course, but the promo dollars are not flowing like they were at launch. And the frequency of Caesars Sportsbook commercials will be drastically decreased, Caesars CEO Tom Reeg said on the company’s recent earnings call.
That decision comes after Caesars’ digital division lost more than $300 million in adjusted EBITDA on $116 million in net revenue during the fourth quarter.
The shift in Caesars’ momentum is in the numbers. While all operators saw handle boosted by the Super Bowl for the week of Feb. 13, Caesars was the only operator that had handle fall to below what it reported for the week ending Feb. 6 in the most recent report.
