It was a huge seasonal dip in mobile New York sports betting handle during the last full week of May compared to the previous week, but there was a substantial boost in gross gaming revenue over the previous week.
For the week ending May 28, 2023, New York had a mobile sports gambling handle of $261.75 million, which was a 14% decrease from the week ending May 21. It also was the lowest reported since the week ending Sept. 18, 2022, when the handle was about $296.67 million.
However, it was a different story when it came to revenue. For the week ending May 28, the mobile sports wagering gross gaming revenue (GGR) was about $35.72 million compared to the previous week’s GGR of $18.91 million. That was an increase of a whopping 89% in GGR in a week-to-week comparison.
The revenue numbers are reported weekly by the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC).
Inside the NY Weekly Numbers
While the drop in handle in New York for the last week in May appears severe, it reflected what typically happens in sports wagering in late spring and throughout the summer as interest in the sports calendar wanes, at least from a betting standpoint. The drop also could have been impacted by the distraction of the Memorial Day weekend.
Comparing the last week in May 2023 to the comparable week in 2022, the numbers are strikingly similar.
As mentioned, the week ending May 28, 2023 had handle of $261.75 million. The week ending May 29, 2022 had handle of $271.88 million.
However, the revenue in 2023 was a brighter story for the sportsbooks. As noted above, the GGR for WE May 28, 2023 was $35.72 million while the GGR for May 29, 2022 was just $13.84 million.
The healthy GGR for the week ending May 28, 2023 was a result of a tidy 13.6% hold by the NY betting apps.
Summer definitely is the doldrums for sports betting and the handle numbers might continue to decline for a few months. For instance, last year, the handle for week ending July 24 was just $149.7 million. So, the sportsbooks will be waiting eagerly for the return of college football and New York NFL betting in September.
Among the state’s nine mobile sportsbooks for the week ending May 28, FanDuel NY maintained its iron grip on the financial lead with $114.22 million in handle and $19.76 million in GGR. That means that FanDuel NY accounted for about 43.7% of the state’s total handle and almost 55.5% of the state’s total GRR.
The No. 2 sportsbook for handle and GGR was DraftKings with $83.58 million in handle and $8.73 million in GGR.
The rest of the sportsbooks were:
- Caesars Sportsbook, $31.84 million (handle), $3.63 million (GRR)
- BetMGM, $17.92 million (handle), $2.43 million (GGR)
- BetRivers, $7.26 million (handle), $458,671 (GGR)
- PointsBet, $4.21 million (handle), $471,473 (GGR)
- Wynn NY Interactive, $1.5 million (handle), $65,296 (GGR)
- Resorts World, $932,478 (handle), $38,913 (GGR)
- Bally Bet, $499,743 (handle), $56,188 (GGR)
The weekly tax collected by the state from sports wagering was $18,215,052.
