As the November sportsbook revenue reports roll in, the positive news keeps coming for ESPN Bet. In Massachusetts, Penn went from a three-way tie for fifth to jumping into third in the state in terms of handle based on the latest revenue report from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
DraftKings was still the clear-cut leader with $320 million in handle with FanDuel second with $181.5 million, but it was ESPN Bet in third place with $39 million in handle, just edging out BetMGM, which posted $38.9 million. The amont accounts for 6.1% of all bets in the state.
Altogether, Massachusetts sportsbooks generated $636.7 million in handle with $50.1 million in gross gaming revenue and $9.7 million in tax revenue going to the state.
Similarly to other states, ESPN Bet managed to post the best hold rate of the month with $5.8 million in GGR and a 14.9% rate. Based on data from other states where promotional spending is reported, ESPN Bet has been spending big in that category, which could be inflating the hold percentage as well as revenue.
For example, in Maryland, ESPN Bet posted 12.5% hold on $33.3 million in handle, but $13 million of that handle was in the form of promotional credit.
These first numbers from ESPN Bet also do not represent a full month of wagering on the platform, as it did not officially launch until midway through the month. However, the app’s monthly numbers do benefit from whatever the last days of Barstool managed to generate before the operational switch.
Fanatics Sportsbook was running evenly with both Barstool Sportsbook and WynnBet in October. The group’s handle trended upward from $13.6 million in October to $15.8 million in November. With that uptick, the operator has widened the gap slightly between itself and WynnBet, which posted $13.8 million in handle.
Betr brought up the rear for Massachusetts online sportsbooks with just shy of $200K in handle and $24,294 in GGR.
