A new and exciting season of the NFL and college football are back and with them comes the busy days for New York’s mobile sports betting operators. Recently, the New York State Gaming Commission reported that for the week ending on September 10, 2023, the current digital sportsbooks contributed to a betting handle of approximately US$416 million.
It should be explained that the Empire State kicked off its mobile sports betting market in January 2022, and it quickly moved to the top-performing legal sectors in the U.S. Currently, eight operators are up and running in the online space due to Bally Bet going offline to migrate its sports betting platform to Kambi. The company said it will be back in the coming weeks.
Pro Football Causes Uptick in Handle
As already expected, the return of NFL and college football injected the New York market with new life. For the week ending on September 10, 2023, the eight sportsbook operators disclosed a total wagering handle of US$416 million. This weekly handle was the largest since January 15, 2023, and was a 26% jump in betting volume from this same week in 2022.
For the aforementioned week, gross gaming proceeds from bookmakers hit US$56.6 million, which is the second-highest in the state since the launch of the digital market in early 2022. It also produced the largest-ever week-over-week revenue jump of around 582% from the previous week. The week was also US$1 away from matching the all-time high for weekly profits in the state.
For the week of September 10, 2023, FanDuel was the biggest winner, as the sportsbooks disclosed US$32.3 million of the gross proceeds which amounted to 57% of all weekly profits. The New York-based company also generated the largest handle for the week with US$195.5 million of the total volume, which was almost 60% higher than the previous week.
DraftKings was in the second with revenue of US$16.4 million coming from a wagering volume of US$138.8 million. Caesars Sportsbooks came in third with a weekly betting activity of US$40.9 million and gross profits of US4.4 million. BetMGM was next with a total betting handle for the week of US$22.1 million and pre-tax earnings of US$2.3 million.
Downside of Sports Betting Popularity
However, with the increasing popularity of digital sports betting more and more New Yorkers have enrolled into voluntary self-exclusion programs. This was noted in an NYSGC and Office of Addiction Services and Supports, which indicated that there was a 33% increase in exclusion requests in the first 12 months. There has been a 23% bump in calls to the state’s HOPEline.
The risks of problem gambling in the Empire State are growing bigger, but there has been no progress in the initiative of banning sports betting advertisements. A while back US Rep. Paul Tonko, D-20th introduced a bill to induce a federal ban on ads, but recently the lawmaker said the legislation titled H.R. 967 has not gained much traction in Congress.
