The Bluegrass State showed solid sports betting numbers in August, with the handle up over 17% from a historic low in July. The launch of mobile sports betting in Kentucky recently had its first birthday on September 7th.
Dog Days Over
The dog days of summer are mercifully over for sportsbooks all over North America. June, July and August are perennially the slowest months on the sports betting calendar, with MLB dominating the sports landscape throughout and enjoying virtual exclusivity in July.
Therefore, it was not surprising that Kentucky posted a historical low in July after launching in September 2023. Much to the delight of mobile sportsbooks in Kentucky, August showed a noticeable improvement with the advent of early regular season college football and the NFL exhibition slate unfolding.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission announced that mobile and retail sportsbooks in the state had accepted $151.4 million in wagers during the month, which was a 17.2% increase from July.
However, Kentuckians who wagered were much sharper in August than in July, causing top-rated sportsbooks’ win rate, commonly referred to as the hold, to plummet from 11.5% in July to 8% in August, which produced lower revenues for the sportsbooks and a smaller cut for the state. Because of that, and despite the higher handle, the $12.1 million in gross revenue produced by the online and retail sportsbooks was over 21% lower than in July.
The state’s cut, through taxes on the sportsbooks’ adjusted gross revenues of $11.8 million, totaled roughly $1.7 million, approximately $500,000 less than the previous month.
Better Than Expected
Revenues after the state’s inaugural year in the sports betting industry exceeded expectations. After 12 months, mobile sportsbooks received $2.3 billion of the nearly $2.4 billion worth of wagers, with retail sportsbooks accepting $83 million in wagers.
The sportsbooks averaged an impressive 11.8% hold in the first full year, which delivered gross revenues of $283.6 million and adjusted revenues of $277.7 million. The state received $39.1 million, which far surpassed the projected revenues of $23 million in the industry’s first year of operation.
DraftKings Rules Kentucky
In a scenario that has repeated itself in sports betting markets throughout the nation, DraftKings and FanDuel accounted for 73% of the market share in Kentucky. And although FanDuel most often nudges Boston-based DraftKings for the top spot, in Kentucky we saw DraftKings generate a $900 million handle against FanDuel’s $819 million after a full year of taking action in the Bluegrass State.
Kentucky’s August 2024’s numbers are below:
DraftKings saw an 18.3% increase over July, but due to a lower hold, revenues plunged from $5.7 million to $5 million in August.
On the other hand, its chief rival, FanDuel, saw its handle drop by a million dollars from July to $45.2 million in August, while its $3.9 million in revenues dropped 36% from the previous month. Coming in third was bet365, posting a handle of $16.3 million, the only other sportsbook to top $10 million in bets for August.
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