Stephen Campbell
Pennsylvania sportsbooks took a beating in August, but the industry’s revenue has held steady for two months.
The summer slowdown is finally over as Pennsylvania bookmakers chased off an otherwise sluggish US handle trends from last month. But this isn’t good news–August saw 7% less money wagered than July and 25 million dollars less betting activity at racetracks across our state!
PA sportsbooks handed out $7.3 million in promos last month, or 28%. This is a decrease from August’s promotion-aided revenue of nearly 70% and September 2001 when operators paid just under 36%. With such small holds this past summer so far there were undoubtedly many disappointed bettors who took their business elsewhere after taxes – which total up at about 6.5M.
PA sportsbooks are doing quite well in line with neighboring NJ. Pennsylvania ranks fourth and 11th, respectively for handle growth as well as revenue decline month-over-month but it still has some distance to catch up
Nextdoor neighbor New Jersey holds third place when it comes to handles grown per month at +$1 million annually while also ranking second behind only Nevada where total betting dollars increased by over $2 billion last year alone according an industry insider report published on Forbes website.”
| State | August handle | July handle | Difference | August revenue | July revenue | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware | $5,251,471 | $4,110,581 | 27.8% | $453,642 | $633,084 | -28.3% |
| Iowa | $108,417,527 | $88,963,377 | 21.9% | $6,604,647 | $7,097,826 | -6.9% |
| Colorado | $211,900,000 | $181,300,00 | 16.8% | $15,200,000 | $15,700,000 | -2% |
| New Jersey | $664,675,859 | $578,729,290 | 14.9% | $52,023,081 | $54,966,257 | -5.4% |
| Pennsylvania | $348,520,369 | $304,415,503 | 14.5% | $25,315,958 | $27,482,519 | -7.9% |
| Indiana | $215,636,824 | $194,492,669 | 10.9% | $16,537,681 | $17,453,179 | -5.2% |
| West Virginia | $22,350,089 | $21,290,275 | 5.0% | $1,993,383 | $2,295,743 | -13.2% |
| Nevada | $427,400,00 | $409,700,000 | 4% | $14,300,000 | $33,300,000 | -57% |
| Michigan | $208,565,955 | $206,267,088 | 1.1% | $17,537,778 | $20,766,255 | -15.5% |
| Arkansas | $2,892,285 | $2,908,833 | -0.6% | $310,481 | $449,040 | -30.9% |
| Oregon | $17,686,198 | $18,189,572 | -2.8% | $1,063,135 | $2,173,572 | -51.1% |
| Washington DC | $12,445,312 | $12,808,240 | -2.8% | $1,492,901 | $1,801,748 | -17.1% |
| Mississippi | $21,436,948 | $30,659,426 | -30.1% | $1,886,405 | $2,887,695 | -34.7% |
The recent decline in Mississippi sports betting is from the impact of Hurricane Ida last month.
FanDuel and DraftKings both saw their share of the $318.1 million bet online grow in August, as Fan Duel led with 42%, or $135 million to lead all operators by a wide margin according to new data from PYMNTS (plus 1). The other 10 sportsbooks had lower handle percentages but still managed some growth between them; collectively ending up at 25%.
BetMGM saw a 1.6 percentage point decline in their online share, from 8.9% to 7%. This despite spending the second-most amount on promos with $1 million USD and having one of the most viewed gambling channels out there at Barstool Sportsbook (8x more views than 2nd placed BetRivers).
