What's Up With the Sports Betting Numbers in New York?

Retail sports betting has been available in New York since July of 2019. That puts New York residents among some of the first in the nation to be able to legally wager on sports outside of Nevada. It puts them on par with sports betting leading states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Despite having close to two years' worth of sports betting and revenue data available for public viewing, the numbers have been a mystery. They have been a mystery until now. After getting a first glimpse of what has been going on in New York in terms of retail sports betting, there is only one word that comes to mind, disappointing.

By population, New York is the 4th largest state with just over 19 million people. Since the first three states have not yet legalized any form of sports betting, New York is the largest state where sports betting is legal. Why then do the cumulative sports betting and revenue numbers pale in comparison to a single month of handle and revenue in at least six states? That's right, the total handle for close to two years was only $231 million. Sports betting revenue came in at 11.44% of that number, or $26.4 million. To be clear, that's barely a good week in New Jersey and Nevada.

The problem with all of this is New York has not been reporting its numbers since the beginning. It was only because of a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request filed by US Bets in May that the information was made available by The New York State Gaming Commission. These numbers cover the bookmaking activities of the state's four nontribal casinos: Rivers Casino & Resort, Tioga Downs Casino, del Lago Resort and Casino, and Resorts World Catskills.

In all fairness, there were no numbers reported for the period covering April 2020 through August 2020 because casinos were closed due to COVID-19. Still, the gross betting handle since inception would have barely cleared the $300 million if the activity had been recorded during those months.

What's Up?

There would appear to be two main issues at play to account for such horrible numbers. First, all four of the state's retail casinos are north of Manhatten. Sports bettors in close proximity to those locations were certainly using them. It would appear everyone else was doing their sports betting in other states, namely Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

That puts the spotlight on an even bigger issue. Every state in the nation that allows both retail and online sports betting has seen the online/mobile bookmakers pulling the biggest portion of the sports betting handle and revenue. In some states, the breakdown is 80% to 20% in favor of the online bookmakers.

New York and Governor Andrew Cuomo have just seen the light. It's only now after terrible budget shortfalls that the legislature is putting together online sports betting legislation. According to Cuomo, that should boost the state's annual sports betting tax revenue to $500 million. As the saying goes, "better late than never."