The Philadelphia Eagles crushed the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, but not as much as they crushed Pennsylvania sportsbooks.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board‘s revenue report for February shows that while sports wagering handle rose year-over-year, operators’ winnings crashed hard.
With the Eagles in the Big Game a big betting attraction, February 2025 total sports wagering handle was $756.9 million, an increase of 14.4% on the February 2024 total of $661.7 million.
But operators’ combined gross revenue was just less than $34 million, down 32.6% from last year’s $50.3 million. After nearly $26.5 million in promotions and deductions, Pennsylvania sportsbooks made just $7.5 million in taxable revenue, a drop-off of 75.3% from last February’s $30.3 million.
Online sports betting revenue was actually higher than the overall sum, at $10.4 million. But retail sportsbooks posted a revenue deficit of nearly $2.9 million last month.
Until February 2025’s $7.5 million, the lowest amount of taxable revenue Pennsylvania sportsbooks had made in a single month this fiscal year was the $21.9 million in December 2024. February’s total is the lowest in three years, since the $442,847 loss sportsbooks made in February 2022.
FanDuel takes hit, all others take punch to gut
FanDuel was the only sportsbook to make any kind of money in Pennsylvania in Super Bowl month. Its partnership with Valley Forge Casino generated $21.3 million in GGR and $13.7 million in AGR from a handle of $284.5 million. That total bet amount was up 3.1% year-over-year while adjusted revenue was down 22.9%.
But the market leader had it easy compared to other sportsbooks. No other Pennsylvania sports wagering operator earned more than $146,000 in adjusted revenue in February and 11 of the state’s 17 casinos made a loss on sports betting for the month.
Second among the 17 casinos in adjusted revenue was Live! Casino Pittsburgh, which is also partnered with FanDuel, with $145,583 from a handle of $866,247 and no promotional spending to account for. Rivers Casino Philadelphia took $12 million in bets but made just $245,661 in gross revenue and $115,186 in adjusted revenue, the latter of which was good enough for a podium finish.
BetMGM, partnered with PENN’s Hollywood Casino Morgantown, suffered particularly badly. Although it took $58.8 million in bets in Pennsylvania in February, the fourth-highest handle last month, it was nearly $1.1 million in the red in terms of GGR. After almost $2.2 million paid out promotional, it lost nearly $3.3 million, almost $3.1 million of which was down to online betting.
