New York Breaks Record for Super Bowl Handle and Monthly Gambling Handle

If there was ever a question about New York’s viability as a haven for legal sports betting, it has been definitively answered. Despite heavily taxing operators and being relatively late to the betting game, New York has become a money machine for operators. In January 2024, New York set a gambling revenue record for the second-straight month. The total handle was $1.96 billion and operators generated $211.5 million in revenue, which was more than the previous record of $188.3 million set in December 2023.

In other New York gambling news, there was $162.2 million gambled on Super Bowl LVIII in New York as well as $27.8 million on Super Bowl LVIII futures. On those bets, operators collected nearly $12.5 million for a nice little chunk of change (on just one day). It’s clear that it was a huge day for sportsbooks in the Empire State after they had a massive month in January.

While it’s hard to predict the future, the next portion of the sports calendar likely won’t be as active for the sportsbooks. The NBA and NHL still have a few months left of their respective regular seasons and college basketball’s March Madness is always huge but, after those postseasons wrap up, it’s pretty much just baseball for awhile. So, from the sportsbook perspective, it’s great to clean up in January and on the year’s biggest event.

Trends In New York Betting

Many people in New York have chosen to bet online lately which is why the sportsbooks have been profiting so much. But, interestingly, January 2024 was the first month since October 2023 in which New York sportsbooks handled less than $2 billion. November 2023’s $2.1 billion is still the record for online betting in a state in a month but December 2023’s $2.04 billion was close behind. Still, the total handle for January 2024 was 9.5% higher than in January 2023 which shows the growth of the New York betting market.

The trends regarding sportsbook revenue in New York are even more promising for operators. In addition to the New York gambling handle record, revenue in January 2024 was up 12.3% from December 2023 and a whopping 41.6% from January 2023. That’s enormous growth in just one year — and remember that January 2024 doesn’t include Super Bowl LVIII, which will count for February 2024’s data.

While there could be some kind of theoretical limit to how much New Yorkers will bet or how much in revenue New York operators will make, at least for now things are only pointing up. What is certain is that the concerns that some operators had about the New York market prior to legalization in January 2022 have been fairly unfounded. Sportsbook bonuses for employees are looking pretty good.

Close Battle Between FanDuel and DraftKings

Another fascinating data point to look at is which operators have had the most success in New York. On Super Bowl LVIII for example, FanDuel ($53.6 million in handle and $3.7 million in revenue) and DraftKings ($52.3 million in handle and $8.8 million in revenue) were pretty much in lockstep — and well ahead of any other operator — in terms of handle on the Super Bowl. But, DraftKings had a huge advantage in revenue.

It’s still cool to see how close those two giants in the industry are in terms of amount of money wagered with them in New York. There are plenty of complicated factors that affect where bettors choose to bet so the fact that the handle was so close between them could show that they’re on a relatively even playing field in terms of customer attraction and retention. It’s also interesting how there was such a large gap in profitability.

As the existing New York gambling handle record could very well be broken yet again in February 2024, it’s worth following whether FanDuel or DraftKings is able to differentiate itself in New York so it can lead such a lucrative market that only seems to be getting bigger. Whoever can figure out how to “win” New York could develop a blueprint to gain footholds in other large states, maybe one like Florida where legal online betting is still relatively new. That would be an enormous competitive advantage going forward as online betting continues to get even more popular.

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