At least in New York, sportsbooks’ revenue woes this fall are firmly in the rearview mirror.
The Empire State’s nine mobile sports betting operators produced a new monthly record of $231.7 million in gross gaming revenue in November, said the New York Gaming Commission’s latest reporting. That figure is up a massive 53.5% from November 2023 and beat the previous high of $211.5 million set in January of this year by nearly 10%.
The record revenue came from total online sports wagering handle of $2.3 billion. That was the second-highest all-time in the U.S., $65 million short of the record set in the state last month. Handle was up just 7% year-over-year, meaning the rise in revenue far outstripped the growth in betting volume.
New York is the first state to reach $20 billion handle in a calendar year post-PASPA and the first to hit $5 billion in all-time operator GGR.
After what operators called “customer-friendly outcomes” in the NFL and other sports hit sportsbooks’ wallets hard in October, the bounceback in November was strong. November’s GGR earnings were 31.4% higher than the $176.3 million operators posted in October. Hold rose from 7.6% to 10.2% month-over-month.
That also yielded the biggest tax revenue total ever in the state, $118.1 million in November alone. Year-to-date tax revenue is $965 million, meaning New York will surely break the $1 billion sports betting tax revenue barrier in a calendar year for the first time ever.
New York bettors have now laid down more than $2 billion in wagers each of the last three months.
Fanatics vies to be best of rest
Fanatics Sportsbook has made big gains in New York in recent months and kept its hold on third place in the state in November in terms of handle.
It took $170.2 million in handle to stay ahead of BetMGM and Caesars at the top of the second tier of sportsbooks, and set a new monthly record for itself with $13.8 million in revenue.
However, both BetMGM and Caesars made more money than Fanatics from less handle. BetMGM took a new personal-best $14.4 million in revenue from $167.7 million and Caesars completed the top five with $158.1 million wagered and $14.2 million in GGR, its best month of 2024 in the state. Those two sportsbooks experienced very different trends in handle; Caesars’ fell 23% year over year while BetMGM’s rose 39%.
Ultimately, FanDuel led the way again in November, accounting for 43% of New York’s total GGR with $102.6 million on $921.2 in million handle thanks to a 11.4% hold. It is the only sportsbook ever to eclipse $900 million in bets in New York in a single month, and has now done so three times. DraftKings sat behind its rival with $77.1 million in revenue from $745.4 million.
ESPN Bet enjoys best month so far
ESPN Bet is still struggling to climb the charts as it trailed behind not only that quintet but also BetRivers, with $39 million in bets taken to the Rush Street Interactive brand’s $47.6 million.
However, the PENN Entertainment-owned sportsbook had its best month ever in terms of revenue since launching in New York in September, taking $3.5 million from a hold of just under 9%.
Bally Bet also had its best month ever in New York in terms of revenue, with $1.2 million from $10.6 million in handle. Its hold of 11.3% was higher than any competitor in November. Resorts World brought up the rear with $567,119 in revenue from $5.4 million in handle.
