New York sets new sports wagering handle record at just shy of $1.8B in January

To quote former New York Yankees catcher and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra: “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

Handle came less than $1 million shy of $1.8 billion, easily outdistancing the previous record of the $1.69 billion wagered in January 2022, when mobile sportsbooks became first available in New York. The Empire State currently has the top eight monthly handles in the post-PASPA era and 10 of the top 12.

missed out on the $150 million plateau by less than $114,000 thanks to a pair of retail books posting losses. Both del Lago Resort and Resorts World finished in the red for January, as the retail win rate for January was under 4.6%, the lowest since a 0.4% hold last June.

Overall handle was up 10.2% compared to December and 6.7% versus January 2022. Revenue was 4.8% higher versus December and 21.1% higher against last January as the 8.3% hold was an improvement of nearly one full percentage point.

The $50,360 in retail tax receipts for January lifted the overall haul for the state to $76.3 million, upping the previous record from November by $563,000. Excluding operator license fees, New York has generated $770 million in tax revenue since it first started permitting online wagering.

FanDuel continues to raise the state’s benchmarks for handle and revenue among mobile operators, reaching $726.7 million for the former and $81.9 million for the latter in January while also extending its run of double-digit holds to seventh months at 11.3%. It was the third time in four months FanDuel accounted for more than half the mobile operator revenue, while its handle accounted for slightly more than 40% of all accepted wagers.

DraftKings was a distant second in both categories, though its $593.4 million in accepted bets was an all-time high. Its win rate, though, dropped nearly two full percentage points to 6.7% as its revenue dipped 11% from December to $39.8 million. The January handle did push DraftKings over $5 billion all-time in New York.

Caesars was the only other operator with an eight-figure revenue total in January, landing just under $15 million. A 4.5% month-over-month increase in handle to $223.7 million was not enough to offset a 0.6-point dip in hold as revenue slid 4.2%.

BetMGM was the fourth and final operator with a nine-figure handle at $122.9 million, though a 5.9% hold resulted in just $7.2 million in revenue. PointsBet ($3.1 million) and BetRivers ($1.9 million) also had seven-figure revenue tallies, with the former setting an all-time monthly high by $40,000 from its previous record established in February. Both also set new records for monthly handle, as the Aussie-based book nearly hit $58 million and BetRivers accepted $47.6 million in wagers.

WynnBET continues to be flummoxed by New York bettors as its 2.3% hold was the low mark among the state’s nine mobile operators and marked the fourth straight month with a sub-6% win rate. It did clear $10 million handle for the second time, pushing it over $100 million overall.

Mobile operator revenue continued to land in a relatively narrow range, with January’s $149.4 million the fifth consecutive month it was between $141 million and $150 million.

Retail revenue breakdown

Retail handle was slightly more than $10 million in January, a 39.2% year-over-year decline, and though del Lago and Resorts World were losers for the month, the $460,000 in total revenue from the four commercial sportsbooks was still a swing of $790,000 to the positive compared to the start of 2022.

Rivers saw its revenue increase nearly five-fold from last year to $388,000 as its win rate was 7.5 percentage points higher. Tioga Downs had the best hold of the quartet at 15.6%, keeping $115,000 of the $740,000 wagered.

Resorts World paid out $33,600 above the $1.7 million it accepted in wagers, which was a notable improvement from last January when bettors came out $240,000 ahead. Del Lago’s loss was a relatively slim $10,649 on $3.2 million handle, also better than last year when it was $75,000 in the red.

By Chris altruda