Three days into New York online sports betting’s launch and the Empire State is already putting up some gargantuan numbers.
The talk of the sports betting world has been this weekend’s successful launch of DraftKings Sportsbook NY, FanDuel Sportsbook NY, Caesars and Rush Street Interactive (through its BetRivers sportsbook). New York online sports betting was always going to be big, but nobody knew it was going to be this big this fast.
Early Returns On New York Sports Betting
Despite a few hiccups, and a few moments where sportsbook apps were down and couldn’t be accessed by customers, the launch exceeded all expectations in a big way.
States: NY, NJ, PA, AZ, CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, NV, OH, TN, VA, WV, WY
GET THE APPIn fact, New York became the top sports betting state in the country in its first 12 hours.
According to Lindsay Slader, managing director of gaming at GeoComply, in New York’s first 12 hours of online sports betting the state recorded 5.8 million bets, 3.5 million ahead of second-ranked Pennsylvania during that time period.
According to Slader and GeoComply, here were the state betting totals from Saturday, Jan. 8, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- New York: 5.8 million
- Pennsylvania: 2.3 million
- New Jersey: 2.1 million
- Michigan: 1.6 million
- Illinois: 1.1 million
- Arizona: 1 million
In total, GeoComply reported New York sportsbook operators took in more than 17 million bets during the weekend.
The first 36 hours of #SportsBetting in New York was LEGENDARY. In total, NY saw over 17M checks for their first weekend.
Check out this video of #geolocation volume! pic.twitter.com/FylPc2BpUQ
— GeoComply (@GeoComply) January 10, 2022
While numbers won’t be known for a while, BetRivers did report on some initial figures for the weekend. According to ESPN gambling reporter David Payne Purdum, the sportsbook reported $970,381 was wagered on Saturday in the state.
Football accounted for the majority of the wagers, with New York sports bettors placing $500,231 on the Saturday NFL games. Basketball was second at $271,281.
.@BetRivers reports $970,381 was bet Saturday with its sportsbook in New York.
Football accounted for $500,231 of the amount wagered, followed by basketball with $271,281.
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) January 9, 2022
BetRivers is likely to be the sportsbook operator with the least handle of the initial four launched, so it paints an optimistic picture for the state moving forward.
The numbers will only move up from here as New York moves into the NFL playoffs in late January and Super Bowl LVI in February. The state is also waiting on the launch of the remaining five sportsbook operators (PointsBet, WynnBET, BetMGM, Empire Resorts, and BallyBet) to bring online sports betting to full capacity.
What’s Next For NY Online Sports Betting?
The biggest question facing New York is if the state will continue its torrid run after the initial excitement of the launch wears off. With so many big sporting events in the near future it’s hard to imagine much of a decline.
The NFL playoffs will dominate the rest of January and February will be bolstered by the massive numbers from the Super Bowl, the most bet sporting event every year.
Add in the March Madness tournaments that follow shortly thereafter and it all equals big money for the Empire State.
