After the tremendous start of 2023 for mobile sports wagering activity, New York has now reported a major dump in its weekly betting handle. For the week, that ended on January 29, 2023, the New York State Gaming Commission disclosed the first seven-day wagering volume of less than US$400 million since the start of the new calendar year.
The start of 2023 marked the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Empire Stateās mobile sports betting market. It allows for nine digital sportsbooks to offer and accept sports wagers online, and the sector has been more than beneficial to the state. For its first year, it brought it over US$700 in tax revenue from bets and over US$200 million in operator licenses.
Massive Drop in Volume
Yesterday, the New York State Gaming Commission released its latest weekly data on the market. For the week of January 29, 2023, the nine sportsbooks clocked US$344.8 million in online wagering activity. This is significantly lower than the amount which was recorded in the last month including the previous week when operators had US$450.7 million in handle.
The handle for the last full week of January 2023, marked the first time in a while since operators failed to surpass the US$400 million mark in the new year. Meanwhile, the US$344.8 million handle translated to just US$27.3 million. This amount was also a massive decrease from the US$57.5 million for the week that concluded on January 22, 2023.
In terms of operatorās numbers breakdown, the local brand FanDuel was still the most preferred sportsbook among New Yorkers. The company captured the largest volume of the total handle as its bets amounted to US$146.8 million in handled wagers. This volume rendered into US$13.5 million in gross gaming revenue. Both metrics were down on the previous week’s performance.
Needless to say, the top three sportsbooks in volume and revenue remain intact. DraftKings again stood second with the second-largest volume of recorded wagers with US$108.7 million and pre-tax proceeds of just US$6.7 million. The third spot was reserved for Caesars Sportsbook with a total weekly volume of US$43 million in bets and GGR of just US$4 million.
Tax Rate Complaints
The substantial dip in weekly wagers arrived just after FanDuel and DraftKings took part in a joint hearing of the New York Assembly and Senate gambling committees to review the first year of mobile sports betting. The operators cautioned that if the tax rate is not reduced then some of the sportsbooks in the state might resort to pumping up odds on wagers for bettors.
Meanwhile, some local lawmakers are considering additional changes to the digital sports betting model. In the middle of January, democrats Luis R. SepĆŗlveda introduced Senate Bill S1550. If passed, the legislation would mandate that all gambling ads in the state must feature warnings about the possible negative effect of gaming. It would also require all advertisements to feature the New York problem gambling hotline number.
