Keystone State has a wide and robust gaming market that runs the gamut from casino gambling, Pennsylvania sports betting, DFS, iGaming, and VGTs. When combined, the gaming sectors showed a year-over-year increase and an uptick over the last month.
July Sizzles in the Keystone State
A whopping $467 million in revenue was realized by commercial gaming operators in the state in July which was an increase of over 6% from June and 8.8% from July 2022 according to a report issued by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
Due to the varying degrees of taxation on each form of gambling, a rate of 41% reflects all sectors combined which reaped $192 million in July for state and local governments.
Brick-and-mortar casinos generated the most money, $298.1 million, followed by online casino betting – also known as iGaming – which tallied $132.9 million in taxable revenue. Sports betting operators showed $32.1 million in revenue while truck stop VGTs took $3.4 million of the bettors’ money. Daily fantasy sports produced a relatively modest $655,886.
However, it was iGaming that boasted the biggest year-over-year gains, up an impressive 34.8% from the previous July, although it did dip slightly, 1.8%, from June.
It was an encouraging start to this fiscal year but last fiscal year, ending on June 30th, was no slouch as the operators reaped a staggering 5.51 billion before taxes.
FanDuel Outpaces the Competition
As in most jurisdictions that have regulated retail and mobile sports betting, the latter was responsible for an overwhelming share of the action. Online sports betting accepted 93% of the wagers while the brick-and-mortar locations handled the remaining 7%.
And of those mobile operators, gaming titan FanDuel led the pack yet again with a $126.4 million handle which accounted for 40% of the digital sports betting market in Pennsylvania. That realized $17.4 million in revenue or $13.4 million in adjusted taxable revenue, leading all competitors in those categories as well.
DraftKings, having made inroads in virtually all markets, was unable to dethrone its chief rival for the top spot as it has done recently in other states. The Boston-based bookmaker took in $88 million worth of wagers which accounted for nearly 28% of the market and delivered $9.6 million in gross and $8.4 million in adjusted taxable revenue.
BetMGM took home the bronze but its handle dropped precipitously from the previous month, 18.2% to be precise, on a handle of $23.9 million rendering $2.7 million in gross and $1.8 million in adjusted taxable revenue.
Caesars Sportsbook also showed a decline in volume, as its 7% decline led to an $18.5 million handle with revenues of $1.4 million gross and $1.1 million in adjusted revenue.
Shifting Dynamics
Nevertheless, changes are coming in Pennsylvania’s sports betting market with Penn Entertainment rebranding its Barstool Sportsbook for the more highly visible partnership with sports media giant, ESPN, to be known as ESPN Bet.
Likewise, Australian bookmaker, PointsBet, recently sold its U.S. assets to sports merchandising titan and new entry into the domestic sports betting market, Fanatics. The rebrand will be occurring in the coming months in Pennsylvania and in all markets where PointsBet is active.
Lastly, FOX Bet saw July as its last month in Pennsylvania as parent company co-owner Flutter, also the owner of FanDuel, has decided to shut the lights out on the unheralded brand.
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