Pennsylvania bettors jumped at their first chance to legally bet on football, pushing the state’s online and retail sportsbooks to new heights.
In all, Pennsylvania sportsbooks attracted a record US$109m in bets in August, offering a first glimpse into the power of football betting, according to PlayPennsylvania.com analysts.
“Sports bettors almost universally bet on football, so it is no surprise that even with just one full week of college football games and NFL futures to bet on, that Pennsylvania would experience a significant uptick,” said Jessica Welman, sports betting analyst for PlayPennsylvania.com. “But with the NFL season now underway and more sportsbooks online, August’s successes are just a precursor to much bigger things ahead.”
According to official data, the handle from online and retail sportsbooks was up 84 per cent from the previous record of $59.3million set in July. Combined, online and retail bets yielded $9.9m in revenue in August, up from $5.1m in revenue in July. August’s “win” injected $2.1m into state and local government coffers.
Online bets increased from $39m in July to $83.2m in August, representing 76 per cent of the state’s total handle, up from 65.7 per cent in July. By comparison, about 85 per cent of sports bets in New Jersey are made online.
FanDuel attracted $35.3m in online bets in August, yielding $2.9m in revenue and overtaking SugarHouse Casino as the market leader. SugarHouse generated $25m in online bets, up from $22.2m in July. That generated $1.7m in revenue for SugarHouse.
Next in the rankings were Rivers ($16.9m online handle, up from $9.9m in July; $1m online revenue, up from $773k) and Parx Casino ($6m online handle, up from $3.6m; $621k revenue, up from $333k).
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board posted on its web site August’s Fantasy Contest Revenue Report, showing revenue of $1.39m in August, an increase of 47.2 per cent over the same period last year ($944k). Tax revenue collected from the play-off fantasy contests in August of this year was $208,295.
DraftKings ($756k, up from $502k) and FanDuel ($610k, up from 425k) led the way.
