NY takes monthly sports-betting record from NJ

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New York beat New Jersey’s national record for the most amount of sports wagers placed in a single month, according to the latest figures from the New York State Gaming Commission.

Data put out on Feb. 4 show that customers in New York wagered $1.6 billion between Jan. 8 and Jan. 30, since the Empire State legalized mobile and online sports betting soon after the New Year.

For comparison, New Jersey set the national record for most wagers placed back in October with a $1.3 billion monthly handle. Of that, nearly $1.2 billion was mobile or online, while over $124 million was at retail sites, be it the state’s nine casinos in Atlantic City or at its three racetracks.

“New York supplanting New Jersey as the nation’s largest sports betting market was inevitable, but few thought it would take only three weeks,” reads a prepared statement from Mike Mazzeo, the lead analyst for the gaming publication PlayNY.com.

Their affiliate PlayUSA.com predicted earlier this week that New York’s sportsbooks can expect to beat New Jersey in time for the Super Bowl in just over a week.

The Feb. 2 report shows that of the $1 billion in bets estimated for U.S. online and retail sportsbooks when the Los Angeles Rams face off against the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium in California on Feb. 13., $160 million is expected in New York and $130 million in New Jersey.

For Nevada, patrons are slated to wager $175 million.

A look at the winnings

Broken down, sportsbook FanDuel led the pack with $141.8 million wagered via the internet by New Yorkers. In addition to FanDuel’s online and mobile app presence in New Jersey, it operates the brick and mortar sportsbooks for the Meadowlands Racetrack just outside of New York City.

Following FanDuel was Caesars with just over $128 million of wagers. The industry giant operates three casinos in New Jersey. DraftKings, another major online and mobile sports betting product, saw $102.2 million of wagers. It also runs the in-person sportsbook at Resorts Casino Hotel.

BetMGM – the online arm of MGM that owns the Borgata in Atlantic City, meanwhile, saw $37.5 million in wagers in January by New York customers.

GeoComply Solutions, a tech company based in Vancouver, Canada, reported on Jan. 18 that 1.2 million new accounts were created in New York since the start of online sports betting, with most trying sports betting for the first time.

Data from GeoComply showed 17.2 million New York-based transactions the first weekend of live online sports betting, and 17.9 million transactions in the second weekend.

Regardless, “New Jersey is unfazed,” GeoComply added, logging 12.6 million transactions in the two weekends leading up to New York’s sports betting expansion, and 13.1 million in the two weekends following.

“Given the lower tax rate in New Jersey, sportsbook operators may be inclined to encourage current New York-based players to continue betting in New Jersey where the business environment is more favorable to them,” said Jane Bokunewicz, coordinator at Stockton University’s Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism just outside of Atlantic City.

“New Jersey’s operators will need to continue innovating and bringing new products to market. Retaining existing patrons and cultivating new ones will also be critical,” she continued. Both costly endeavors, Bokunewicz said, but ones that might very well be within New Jersey casino’s budgets given the tax difference.

Even before the pandemic, online and mobile betting were king, both in New Jersey’s sports betting and overall gambling markets. But sports wagers and gambling had to be done strictly online when casinos closed between March and July 2020 amid the pandemic. Of the $10.9 billion in wagers placed in 2021, just $986 million was in-person; the rest were placed remotely, according to state gaming regulators.