Despite the beginning of the 2023/24 NFL season, Pennsylvania’s sports betting revenue took a near 30% hit year-over-year in September as results favored bettors.
Per the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, sportsbook revenue hit $36.6m in September, 27.1% down on September of 2022 when revenue stood at $50.2m.
This is despite an increase in betting activity on an annual basis as sportsbooks held $726.3m in September, up 12.6% YoY.
Instead of a tumbling interest in betting amongst players in Pennsylvania, bettors found themselves lucky with results during the month as operator handle fell to just over 5%.
Consequently, revenue was just $36.6m, an atypically low sum for a state such as Pennsylvania during this period of the year.
Per operator, FanDuel asserted its dominance in the market, overtaking DraftKings to take top spot. The Flutter brand made $19.1m, over half of the revenue made in the Keystone State last month.
DraftKings made $8.6m in revenue last month, whilst betPARX rounded off the top three by making $2.2m. Only BetRivers made more than $2m from the rest of the field, with BetMGM making $1.6m.
Online casino performance offset the declining revenues for sportsbooks, as the vertical made a record-breaking $159.5m last month, eclipsing the previous record from March. Revenue was broken down into $114.7m in slots revenue, $42.4m in table games and $2.4m in poker revenue.
The record amount marks a 41.5% increase from the revenue made in September 2022 as online casino continues to flourish.
Per operator, Hollywood Casino at PennNational Race Course was the clear market leader, making $64.9m, marking a 33.33% uptick YoY. Valley Forge Casino was second, making $35.4m, but was fast growing with 81% YoY growth.
The top three was rounded off by Rivers Casino Philadelphia, which took $29.2m, whilst no other operator made more than $3.2m.
The largest contributor to revenue in the Keystone state was once again retail slots, which made $199.9m last month, whilst retail table games made $75.2m, though this was down 7.8% YoY.
In total gaming in Pennsylvania made $476.3m in September, marking an uptick of 6.2% annually.
