The seven licensed mobile-friendly online sportsbooks in the eastern American state of New York reportedly chalked up almost $2 billion in aggregated handle over the course of their first 30 days of operation.
According to a Monday report from the New York Post newspaper citing official figures from the New York State Gaming Commission, this performance generated in excess of $138 million in gross operator receipts as well as some $70.6 million in associated public revenues off of a 51% tax rate. The source went on to detail that the final $1.98 billion handle figure included more than $600 million in gridiron football wagers alongside the approximately $540 million and $80 million that was bet on games of basketball and ice hockey respectively.
Septuple success:
New York is home to more than 20 million people and reportedly began allowing residents and visitors alike to place remote wagers on a wide range of sporting action from the morning of January 8. Such aficionados can now purportedly lodge their sportsbetting picks with the mobile-friendly sites at WynnBet.com, FanDuel.com, BetRivers.com, WilliamHill.com, PointsBet.com, DraftKings.com and BetMGM.com with these domains having got off to a fast start after chalking up about $1.17 billion in combined handle after only 16 days.
Continuing confidence:
The Governor for New York, Kathy Hochul (pictured), used an official Monday press release to applaud the 30-day figures while additionally revealing that the impressive tally did not include any numbers from Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI extravaganza as these will not be known until next week. Under legislation ratified last year and the 63-year-old Democrat furthermore disclosed that any public revenues collected from online sportsbetting are to be used to fund a range of tax relief, education and youth sports programs in addition to compulsive gambling treatment schemes.
Read a statement from Hochul…
“Over the past month, we’ve seen how mobile sports wagering can be an economic engine for New York to drive significant funding to our schools, youth sports and so much more. As this new industry continues to grow, New York will make sure we have the resources and guidelines in place to make it a success for all.”
Exciting enthusiasm:
For his part and Robert Williams, Executive Director for the New York State Gaming Commission, explained that his state’s seven licensed online sportsbetting services saw more than 1.76 million unique player accounts used over the course of the 30-day period to lodge approximately 187 million wagers. He moreover noted that these figures came from fraud prevention and cybersecurity specialist GeoComply Solutions Incorporated, which has been contracted to ensure that all bets are being placed only by punters physically located within the borders of New York.
A statement from Williams read…
“With Governor Hochul kicking off mobile sports wagering on January 8, there is no doubt there is strong interest in online sportsbetting in ‘The Empire State’, which has just set a national record for monthly tax revenues.”