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We knew the return of the NFL and NCAAF was going to boost sports betting in New York. Now we know much exactly — to the tune of $2 billion in sports bets for month one.
The state’s September numbers are out, and they’re dead-close to setting all-time marks. Let’s take you into the monster month of betting that it was.
Second-Biggest Month In New York Betting History
Legal sport betting has been a thing in the state of New York since January 2022. So it’s a dig deal when it comes dangerously close to breaking its all-time monthly betting number as it did in September. The state crossed $2.07 billion in bets last month — behind only its haul for November 2023, which saw $2.11 billion in sports wagers.
Here’s the state’s best monthly numbers to date:
- November 2023: $2,109,294,400
- September 2024: $2,071,515,109
- December 2023: $2,041,931,893
- October 2023: $2,006,823,408
This is marks fourth time the state has crossed the $2 billion mark in a single month. Want to know how many times every other state’s done that (37 more have legal betting of some kind)? Zero. That’s right, only New York has ever crossed the $2 billion threshold in a single month.
It’s also worth noting that the year-over-year numbers. September 2024 was a 17 percent jump compared to the $1.76 billion from September 2023. The Empire State is showing zero signs of cooling with its sports-betting appetite. Zero!
NY Sportsbook Operators Battle It Out
The New York Gaming Commission also breaks up its betting figures based on sportsbook take-in. Welp, this past month, the operators collected 204.7 million for themselves. This is 23.6 percent higher year-over-year and up 63.8 percent from August, before football season kicked off.
Once again, DraftKings and FanDuel are neck and neck to be “king of New York” per se. DraftKings finished higher in bets taken, doing $788.3 million to FanDuel’s $784.2 million. While that number is almost a wash, the same can’t be said about gross revenue — as in the number they keep after paying out bettors.
FanDuel absolutely crushed DraftKings in gross revenue. They kept $98 million thanks to a double-digit hold. DraftKings, on the other hand, only cracked $69.7 million. It’s very clear that FanDuel is way, way better at profiting off its customers, likely though parlays and boosted odds.
After those two giants, there’s a huge falloff on competition. For instance, Caesars was third in the marketplace with $147.2 million in bets. BetMGM was right in their tail at $143.8 million. Fanatics and BetRivers were fifth and sixth, respectively.
ESPN Bet Enters New York
We should mention a seventh sports betting app joined the fray this month. That’s right, ESPN Bet is the latest player in the Empire State, having launched on September 26. This is in partnership with PENN Gaming, which kicked Barsrool Sports to the curb to get in bed with “the Worldwide Leader.”
Due to the late start, they only collected $4 million in wagers and $103,273 in gross revenue. We’ll see how much the ESPN marketing machine can do to make them competitive in the country’s number-one sports betting market.
Once upon a time, ESPN was the sleeping giant in sports betting. Most believed they could’ve created a sportsbook and swallowed up the competition due to all the major games being on their network. That visibility, paired with its name value with sports fans, was thought to be enough to blow away the completion.
Welp, that thought has come and gone. Many industry experts believe ESPN waited too long to get into the market (late 2023), giving incumbents an early/mover advantage. We’ll see what happens in New York, but elsewhere, ESPN Bet has struggled to catch on.
Eilers & Krejcik — the leading researcher in the space — estimates that ESPN Bet has an under 3 percent share of the online sports betting market. There’s a 2023 quote formfrom the PENN CEO saying, “we’re not doing this deal to be 4% or 5% market share players.” Not only has that expectation not been met, but it’s undershot it quite significantly if E&K estimates are to be believed.
New York Teams All In Action
This next week or so stretch is highly unique in the sports world. That’s because every major sports is still in action. This is particularly unique for a place like New York City since they house two professional teams in each league going on — NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and even MLS.
However, all eyes are on the Yankees, arguably the city’s most favorite team. Not only are they in the World Series for the first time in 15 years, but they’re playing the league’s other prestigious franchise, the LA Dodgers. This is big of a Fall Classic matchup that the MLB has had this century.
The Yankees are making up for the stink of the city’s NFL teams. The Jets and Giants are a combined 4-10 this season. One team has already fired its coach, and the other might follow suit at the end of the year. We’ll see how those struggles play into sports betting interest in state the rest of the year.
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