The revenue and taxation generated by the newly launched online wagering sector in the state of New York have been staggering, although other states are continuing to climb the ladder.
The seven sportsbooks operational in the Empire State – Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel, Rush Street Interactive (RSI), PointsBet, BetMGM and WynnBet, whilst four more prepare for entry – have accumulated a vast income.
According to PlayUSA in an update last week – prior to WynnBet’s launch, the six sportsbooks operational at the time (Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, RSI, PointsBet and BetMGM) totalled revenues of $1 billion.
Speaking on the Legal Sports Report (LSR) podcast, Dustin Gouker described New York as the ‘undisputed king’ of mobile sports betting in the US after a long-awaited and repeatedly postponed launch.
He said: “Arizona was really fast out of the gate, but we had a coordinated launch around the start of NFL season with all the major players there live. New York was similar, we didn’t have a huge runup but we had all of them going in.
“When you base it on population, the fact that they launched it around the NFL playoffs, a lot of the major players are here and spending a lot of money, it shouldn’t be surprising.
“There’s no doubt now that this is the most money wagered in a state in any given month, and we didn’t really see that anywhere else. New York is now the undisputed king in terms of raw money wagered and tax money.”
Additionally, New York’s strong local sporting following, with two teams from each of the four major US leagues as well as an additional two from Major League Soccer (MLS) based in the area, has also been attributed to as a key factor in its betting turnover success.
The northeast is not the only region to have caught the betting industry’s attention in recent weeks, however, as further south in Louisiana – a state with a huge American football fanbase, much of which is centred around college athletics – developments are also moving forward.
With the Super Bowl coming up between the LA Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, Matt Brown observed that preparations in the Bayou State are more than adequate for the onslaught of betting that is just over the horizon.
As with New York, there are currently six sportsbooks in Louisiana – although expansion plans are less clear than in its northeastern counterpart – spread throughout the majority of the state.
“It has been a little overshadowed by New York occurring right before it, but still we’ve added another state to the online betting mix,” Gouker added.
“We’ve had retail sportsbooks a bit there, but it’s in time for the Super Bowl and March Madness with the final four in New Orleans, it’ll be interesting to see what pickup we’ll get from college basketball and gambling tourism there.”
