Sports bettors in Pennsylvania wagered a record $793.7 million in January and Pennsylvania sportsbooks had their second-best month ever for revenue with $53.4 million.
NFL and college football action powered PA sportsbooks to four-straight months of $750 million-plus handle.
January 2022 numbers for sports betting in PA
Figures from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
- Handle: $793.7 million
- Revenue: $53.4 million
- Hold: 6.7% (up from 5% last month)
- Percent of bets placed online: 93%
- Promotional credits: $21.2 million
- Month-over-month: Handle increased 5.7%; revenue increased 40.7%
- Year-over-year: Handle jumped 29%; revenue increased 8.3%
- January sports betting taxes: $10.9 million to the state and an additional $643,399 to local entities.
- Top sports betting app by handle: FanDuel Sportsbook with $273.3 million
- Top sports betting app by revenue: FanDuel Sportsbook ($24.8 million)
PA sports betting handle & revenue by operator January 2022
| Licensee | Online Brand | Total Handle | Total Revenue | Online Handle | Online Revenue | Retail Handle | Retail Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valley Forge | FanDuel | $249,754,200 | $13,984,990 | $246,808,375 | $13,722,683 | $2,945,825 | $262,307 |
| Meadows | DraftKings | $206,413,971 | $8,186,903 | $204,716,271 | $8,113,223 | $1,697,700 | $73,681 |
| Hollywood Morgantown | BetMGM | $83,708,825 | $5,281,203 | $83,546,032 | $5,208,561 | $162,793 | $72,642 |
| Hollywood Penn National | Barstool | $63,074,853 | $4,152,494 | $61,401,883 | $3,940,813 | $1,672,969 | $211,681 |
| Rivers Pittsburgh | BetRivers | $37,598,873 | $2,110,091 | $27,583,596 | $1,713,629 | $10,015,276 | $396,463 |
| Rivers Philadelphia | SugarHouse | $26,365,741 | $738,921 | $17,535,922 | $374,348 | $8,829,819 | $364,573 |
| Parx | Parx | $25,414,722 | $799,436 | $16,907,451 | $429,323 | $8,507,271 | $370,113 |
| Mount Airy | Fox Bet | $15,988,916 | $746,163 | $15,204,913 | $788,144 | $784,003 | -$41,981 |
| Mohegan Sun Pocono | Unibet | $10,180,548 | $435,225 | $8,160,787 | $378,627 | $2,019,761 | $56,597 |
| Presque Isle | TwinSpires | $8,907,776 | $720,144 | $4,579,519 | $302,147 | $4,328,257 | $417,997 |
| Live Philadelphia | Betway | $7,477,648 | $308,855 | $1,916,921 | $127,912 | $5,560,727 | $180,943 |
| South Philly OTB | $2,320,006 | $95,175 | $0 | $0 | $2,320,006 | $95,175 | |
| Wind Creek | Wind Creek | $2,071,555 | $90,861 | $804,942 | $7,575 | $1,266,613 | $83,286 |
| Lehigh OTB | $1,380,064 | $132,849 | $0 | $0 | $1,380,064 | $132,849 | |
| Live Pittsburgh | $1,025,774 | $107,588 | $0 | $0 | $1,025,774 | $107,588 | |
| Oaks OTB | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
| SugarHouse | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
| Harrah’s Philadelphia | Caesars | $6,832,219 | $93,646 | $4,103,559 | $89,988 | $2,728,660 | $3,658 |
| Hollywood York | $1,873,007 | -$31,070 | $0 | $0 | $1,873,007 | -$31,070 | |
| Total | $750,388,696 | $37,953,474 | $693,270,171 | $35,196,971 | $57,118,525 | $2,756,503 |
Four takeaways from PA sports betting in January 2022
Five weekends of football
Because of the expanded regular season, there were five weekends of NFL football in January. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers both made the NFL playoffs before being eliminated in the Wild Card round.
The divisional round games were considered by many the best in history and the conference championship games were decided on the last play. The games held bettors’ interest to the end which translated to more in-game bets.
Pennsylvania sportsbooks set a then-state record for handle in October with $776 million. In November, the sportsbooks broke records for revenue ($85 million).
- September: $578.7 million handle/$48.1 million revenue
- October: $776 million handle/$42.3 million revenue
- November: $761 million handle/$85 million revenue
- December: $750.4 million handle/$38 million revenue
- January: $793.7 million handle/$53.7 million revenue
FanDuel leads market, gives out most promos
FanDuel continues to rule as Pennsylvania’s top sports betting app taking 37% of all bets placed online. Again in January, they led all online sportsbooks for handle ($273.3 million) and revenue ($24.8 million). In terms of promos, FanDuel handed out the most ($18.8 million) of any sportsbook.
After three consecutive months of $200+ million handle, DraftKings took a small step back ($195.7 million) but easily kept its No. 2 spot in PA for handle making $8.2 million in revenue.
Barstool wants to be judged on net gaming revenue; gives out less promos
During Penn National’s Q4 earnings call, CEO Jay Snowden said:
“While that is a useful metric, particularly when a state first launches, it doesn’t mean as much when those incoming dollars generated from that handle are completely offset by marketing and promotions. While we think this point is becoming more widely understood, unfortunately, because of the various ways states report sports betting metrics, investment communities use handle to compare sports betting companies’ performance. Fortunately, there are a few states that report net gaming revenue which we believe is a more relevant measure of performance. In states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, our NGR market share underscore the benefits of our profit-focused strategy.”
Let’s compare net gross revenue (revenue minus promo credits) in January of Barstool online sportsbook and the other top sports betting apps in Pennsylvania.
Barstool
- Revenue: $3.3 million
- Promo credits: $1.7 million
- NGR: $1.5 million
FanDuel
- Revenue: $24.9 million
- Promo credits: $18.9 million
- NGR: $5.9 million
DraftKings
- Revenue: $8.3 million
- Promo credits: $5.2 million
- NGR: $3.1 million
BetMGM
- Revenue: $5.4 million
- Promo credits: $5.6 million
- NGR: -$292,202
Not New York and that’s okay
Some say that Philadelphia developed its inferiority/underdog complex because of its location between New York and Washington, DC. New York claims to be the center of the world and DC is the center of democracy. In just 30 days of online sports betting, New Yorkers bet $1.98 billion, shattering industry records. So, now they are staking their claim as the best at sports betting.
Pennsylvania shouldn’t feel bad about itself. New York has a population of about 20 million compared to Pennsylvania’s 13 million.
But while it won’t stop people around the office talking about how great New York is, the question for Pennsylvania sportsbooks is how much will New York poach from the PA market.
Geocomply, which supplies geolocation data to sportsbooks, gave insight to where bettors are coming from. Only 1.1% of New York bettors are from PA. So, it appears that not much of PA handle will be poached from NY.
Press release: Pennsylvania Sportsbooks, Online Casinos Surge to Records in January
Contact: Zack Hall, Catena Media, [email protected]
Lead image Reed Hoffmann/AP
