New York Mobile Sports Betting Sees Intake Increase in March, Caesars Sportsbook Sees Its Market Share Slip

The launch of legal mobile sports betting in New York has been quite successful. The market has seen a huge intake, which equals a large amount of taxes to fund programs in the state. Since launching in January, during the first three months of being live, New York sports betting tax revenue has contributed $163.6 million toward New York education.

The New York sports betting intake for March saw a lift from the numbers in February. This is likely due to March Madness betting, which is one of the biggest sports betting seasons in the country. In March, the eight online sportsbooks that are live in New York brought in a total of $58.3 million in tax revenue.

According to the New York report that was released a few days ago, that $58.3 million is 51 percent of the $114.3 million that was won by the sportsbooks in February. In March, the state saw $1.638 million total in bets, a great number that demonstrates that March Madness betting boost. This number is up from the total in February, with an increase of 7.2 percent.

But the March sports betting intake is actually still less than the handle was in January, when New York mobile sports betting launched. Even though New York mobile sports betting was only available for a portion of January, the month saw $1.7 billion in bets. This is 1.9 percent more than the handle was in March, even with March Madness betting at its back.

The January boon for sports betting numbers is most likely due to a few factors: huge advertising campaigns for the launch of sports betting, really high promotional offers for new customers to attract bettors, and customer enthusiasm for the new mobile sports betting market.

When the New York mobile sports betting market launched, Caesars Sportsbook was able to reach the number one spot when it came to sports betting operators. Caesars Sportsbook had a massive marketing campaign in New York, including a really great promotional offer for new customers. However, after a few weeks of being live, Caesars Sportsbook lowered its promotional offer to one more in line with the other operators.

In addition, Caesars Sportsbook also pulled back its massive marketing campaign that proliferated all over New York. As a result, Caesars Sportsbook has seen its market domination in the state dwindle, with FanDuel moving in to the number one spot. DraftKings had been closing in on the number two spot held by Caesars Sportsbook and finally knocked Caesars down to third place in March.

Rounding out the rest of the list is BetMGM at number four, PointsBet at number five, BetRivers at number six, WynnBET at number seven, and Resorts World Bet bringing up the rear at number eight. 

In March, FanDuel received 44.1 percent of all online sports bets in New York, as well as 47.4 percent of all New York sports betting revenue. The next sports betting operator handle-wise, DraftKings, took in a handle of 27.1 percent in March. However, Caesars Sportsbook was actually second in the state for revenue with 26.2 percent of all revenue taken in the state last month.

Recently in April, Caesars Sportsbook and BetMGM have begun to battle it out for the third place spot. As Caesars sees its market share decline since the launch of New York mobile sports betting, the company needs to make moves. One such move has been to form a partnership as an official betting partner of the New York Mets, which was announced a few days ago.

At this time, there is also one mobile sportsbook operator that has yet to launch in the mobile New York sports betting market. Bally Bet has already received its New York sports betting license, yet has not launched in the state as of this writing. This is because the operator is waiting until its new platform, Bally Bet 2.0, is ready before it goes live in the state.

The Chairman of Bally Bet, Soo Kim, has indicated that the brand will launch in New York this month, in April. However, considering there are just a few days left in the month, this may not be happening. The CEO of Bally Bet, Lee Fenton, has indicated that the operator will launch in New York during the first half of the year, so this gives Bally Bet until the end of June to launch if it wants to live up to that.

The New York mobile sports betting market could see more sportsbook operators eventually. However, because the budget for New York did not include more licensees for this year, the state will not be seeing any additional licenses offered in 2022. So, when Bally Bet finally launches its mobile sports betting operation in the state, that will be the last launch New York will see for a while.

Written by Allie Nelson, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert.

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