After a solid start in Massachusetts, DraftKings Sportsbook finished the first year of sports betting in Massachusetts as the overwhelming market leader in the Bay State.
According to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, in December, DraftKings took almost $316 million in wagers, accounting for 49.1% of the $643.1 million in wagers placed in December. DraftKings also crushed in the revenue race, taking in $30.7 million in handle for a hold percentage of 9.7%.
The hold rate for DraftKings was slightly above the state average. Across all sportsbooks, operators posted $60.8 million revenue for an overall hold rate of nearly 9.5%. With that output, the state collected just under $12 million in tax revenue for the month.
FanDuel Sportsbook was a distant second in the state with $187.4 million in handle and $19.8 million in revenue. It did produce the strongest hold of the month at 10.6%.
In its first full month of operations, ESPN Bet held steady at third place with just shy of $50 million in bets and $4.2 million in revenue. The revenue reports in Massachusetts do not include promotional spending, so it is difficult to gauge how much of handle was generated by free bets the app handed out.
Handle was up 28.2% from the $38.9 million ESPN Bet debuted with in November. The gap between ESPN Bet and BetMGM was also more substantial, jumping from $100,000 separating the two in November to $10.7 million in December with BetMGM taking $39.2 million in wagers.
ESPN Bet’s market share grew to 7.7% in December compared to 6.2% in November when ESPN Bet was only live for roughly half of the month.
Caesars rounded out the top five sportsbooks with $24.2 million in handle and a mere $1 million in revenue for the lowest hold percentage of any book last month.
