Legal New York Sports Betting Tops $7 Billion Plateau

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

2 minute read

There are now more than 30 states plus the District of Columbia offering legal sports betting in some form. A number of states offer legal betting through retail sportsbooks in land-based casinos. The bulk of the US industry’s sports betting volume is generated online through mobile sportsbook apps.

The state of New York first offered legal sports betting in 2019. However, it was limited to retail sportsbooks in up-state casino locations. The effort to add legal online sports betting picked up steam in 2021.

In early January of 2022, the first wave of US-based operators went live with their mobile sportsbook apps in the Empire State. That group included some heavy hitters such as FanDuel, DraftKings and Caesars Sportsbook. A total of nine US mobile sportsbook operators were licensed in the state.

The New York State Gaming Commission is responsible for regulating legal sports betting in the state. Figures released late in May note that New York’s total sports betting handle from Jan. 8 through May 22 has reached $7.152 billion. As compared to the rest of the legal US market, calling this number staggering is a huge understatement.

New York was able to set a new national record for monthly sports betting volume in January at $1.65 billion. This handle only covered three full weeks of mobile betting. That record was close to being broken in the month of March. April’s betting numbers in New York have slowed with the seasonal sports calendar. However, this clearly remains the No. 1 market for legal sports betting in the nation.

Currently, there are eight sportsbook operators up and running in New York. The ninth approved operator is Bally’s Corporation via Bally Bet as its mobile sportsbook app. FanDuel remains the No. 1 legal operator in the state in terms of total sports betting handle. Based in New York City, this book has taken in $2.75 billion of the total $7.152 billion in sports betting volume.

DraftKings is No. 2 on the list at $1.73 billion according to New York gaming numbers. Caesars Sportsbook rounds out the top three in the state at $1.58 billion.

The big winner so far has been the state of New York itself. With the highest tax rate in the nation (51%) on mobile sportsbook revenue, the total tax collected adds up to $263.4 million.

The upcoming summer months are bound to slow this momentum a bit. June, July and August mark the low point of the year for legal sports betting. Yet, this could be considered the calm before the storm. New York’s mobile sports betting industry will be in full swing heading into the new football season in September.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert.

The featured image for this post was sourced on Getty Images.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab