Pennsylvania Posts a New Sports Betting Handle Record in October
Pennsylvania’s sports betting industry celebrated its third year anniversary.
An extra week in the week of October helped push the handle numbers for both online and retail.
Results on Wednesday noted that it was a historic month for the industry.
Pennsylvania Continues its Success in the Sports Betting World
Pennsylvania’s sports betting handle accepted more wagers in October than any other month since its inception.
Pennsylvania joined elite company as the only other state including New Jersey and Nevada to produce $1 billion in revenue in a calendar year.
In October, the record of $776.2 million in sports wagers pushed the handle’s lifetime numbers to $10 billion in accepted bets.
The single-month record handle noted a 47.6 percent increase when compared to the year-to-date numbers, which was just $525.8 million.
When comparing the numbers from September 2021, the handle portrayed a gain of 34.1 percent, which was $578.8 million.
The former record stood for several months which was achieved back in January which portrayed $615.3 million, which is a growth of 26.2 percent.
There was one statistic that declined which did not translate with the record handle that was just recently posted.
Despite the immense growth, the gross revenue dropped to just $23.5 million.$42.3 million for a 5.4 percent hold in the state, which represented a decline of approximately 36 percent from 36.7 million from the year to date. From September, it depicted a decrease of 51.5% from $48.1 million.
The hold rate was only good for 2.9 percent which was the lowest in its history despite the massive numbers.
The average gross revenue still generated approximately $8 million in taxes as the state has one of the highest tax rates in the country which is slated at 36 percent.
Which Operators Benefited from the Sports Betting Handle Record
The numbers can be attributed to the promotions that sportsbooks offered to their consumers as operators gave out $18.7 million in promos in October, which was the second-highest to September’s $19.9 million.
Three sportsbook giants accounted for 80 percent of the promotions that were handed.
FanDuel handed out $8.3 million, which was 44.2%. BetMGM accounted for $4.0 million, or 21.3%. Lastly, DraftKings dished out $2.7 million, which made up 14.3%.
FanDuel saw the biggest increase in the state as the company accounted for 37.9 percent of the state handle.
The convenience of online sportsbooks was a key marketing strategy as they took 92 percent of the wagers in the state.
Sportsbooks aren’t the only ones that benefited the Pennsylvania market. Online casino and table games $2.1 billion for the month.
The previous record was set in September which showcased $1.7 billion, which is an increase of 22.6 percent.
Katie Kohler is an analyst for PlayPennsylvania.com stated,” The convergence of all that betting inventory, particularly with five weekends of football, made a record in October all but assured,…such a big leap in October shows that Pennsylvania still has an increasing base of bettors, and those bettors are placing more in wagers as they become increasingly comfortable with in-game and proposition betting.”
The record handle numbers can be attributed to five weekends of football, post-season baseball, NBA, and NHL .
