Mobile NY Sports Betting Still Might Expand Without Tax Decrease


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NY sports betting

Both the New York Assembly and Senate included more mobile NY sports betting skins in their one-house budget proposals over the weekend.

Missing, though, is a tax reduction in either the Assembly or Senate bills. That is a big change from the previous proposal for more licensees which would have followed the RFA’s tax matrix and reduced the tax rate to 25%.

For now, the proposals suggest leaving the rate at 51%. That historically high rate for any US sports betting jurisdiction already led to more than $105 million paid by mobile NY sportsbooks in under two months.

Expand NY sports betting if it makes ‘fiscal sense’

Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. told LSR he and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow always imagined having more skins for a competitive New York market.

That makes it worth a conversation to see if expanding the market makes sense fiscally, Addabbo said. Budget negotiations start Tuesday.

“Whether you increase operators, whether you tinker with the tax rate at 51% or whatever it is, it has to make fiscal sense. You’re seeing the numbers right now are so beneficial to the people of New York. You don’t want to mess with that.

“So only if our fiscal analyst will say ‘Hey, this does make sense fiscally,’ then I think we do it. If it doesn’t make sense or if it’s a risk then you don’t do it at this time.”

Taxes continue flowing in February

The mobile NY sports betting industry generated another $42 million in taxes for the state in its first full month of operations. That came from $82.4 million in sports betting revenue generated from $1.528 billion in handle for February, according to the New York State Gaming Commission‘s reports.

All of those figures are lower than the partial launch month of January, though February’s sports calendar was less robust than January’s. Only three states have paid more in taxes than New York’s $105 million, and it took much longer than two months:

JurisdictionTotal taxesMonths to $105MTax rate
Pennsylvania$230.1M in 39 months2736%
New Jersey$210.2M in 44 months3213% online, 8.5% retail
Illinois$114.7M in 21 months2115%

February breakdown by operator

FanDuel seemed to be the clear top sportsbook in New York last month with 37.2% of total online handle.

HandleRevenueHoldTaxes
FanDuel$568,063,621$23,167,3444.1%$11,815,345
DraftKings$387,598,857$29,952,5577.7%$15,275,804
Caesars$323,399,954$19,788,2946.1%$10,092,029
BetMGM$154,697,988$3,521,7832.3%$1,796,109
PointsBet$51,574,752$3,088,1986.0%$1,574,980
BetRivers$37,111,558$2,068,1695.6%$1,054,766
WynnBET$5,121,524$805,75815.7%$410,936
Total$1,527,568,254$82,392,1035.4%$42,019,973

DraftKings ranked second with 25.4% of online handle but led the month with 36.4% of all revenue.

Caesars Sportsbook, which got off to a quick start in January with the largest sign-up promos, finished the month in third with 21.2% of handle.

NY sports betting so far in March

The first six days of March look similar to February, though Caesars is still losing share.

HandleRevenueHoldTaxes
FanDuel$130,151,524$17,013,54013.1%$8,676,905
DraftKings$83,956,641$6,094,1457.3%$3,108,014
Caesars$57,974,688$5,379,6809.3%$2,743,637
BetMGM$34,541,773$1,173,1263.4%$598,294
BetRivers$7,865,979$426,6185.4%$217,575
PointsBet$5,526,118$740,81513.4%$377,816
WynnBET$2,086,199$230,10111.0%$117,352
Resorts$742,109$93,00212.5%$47,431
Total$322,845,031$31,151,0279.6%$15,887,024

Caesars handle share dropped to 18% in the first six days of March. FanDuel, DraftKings and fourth-place BetMGM all saw handle share gains compared to February.