In case we needed any further proof that New York sports betting was king of the hill, GeoComply provided even more evidence from Week 1 of the NFL season.
According to GeoComply, a geolocation company that ensures all legal betting occurs within set boundaries, NY sports betting accounted for 15.3% of all geolocation pings during NFL Week 1 (not including Monday Night Football) among states with legal sports betting. Paced by the Empire State, geolocation volumes spiked 71.5% compared to this time last year. Simply put: More bets were coming in.
“Clearly an unbelievable start to the NFL season,” Anna Sainsbury, CEO of GeoComply, said in a press release.
“The growth of legal betting suggests that Americans are ditching offshore sportsbooks for regulated options in their home states. This is exactly the outcome legislators and regulators looked to achieve through legalization as they now protect consumers and increase tax revenues.”
NY sports betting early leader for NFL betting
From Sept. 8 to Sept. 11, New York totaled some 15.7 million geolocation pings, according to a release from GeoComply. Along with NY, only Pennsylvania topped 15 million, with its 15.3 million pings accounting for a 14.8% market share.
The next three states included:
- New Jersey: 13.5 million (13.1%)
- Michigan: 9.7 million (9.4%)
- Illinois: 8.0 million (7.8%)
All told, per GeoComply, geolocation volumes skyrocketed to 103.1 million during opening weekend. Compare that to the 60.1 million recorded in 2021.
“New York continues its reign as ‘King of the Hill’ with 15.3 percent market share for US betting,” Sainsbury said in the release, “but we are also seeing strong growth across the country.”
Big highlight of NFL Week 1: Buffalo win, and Buffalo pings
The NFL betting season kicked off with Thursday Night Football, as the Buffalo Bills went on the road and dismantled reigning the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams for an impressive 31-10 victory.
According to GeoComply, in the Buffalo area alone, the service registered over 267,000 pings on Sept. 8 alone, the day of the Bills game. Seven days earlier, just 86,000 transactions occurred in the same region.
Who’s ready for another round of NFL numbers?
From last night’s @BuffaloBills vs. @RamsNFL game, let’s take a look at New York’s new sportsbetting market… pic.twitter.com/eJRjttt35s
— GeoComply (@GeoComply) September 9, 2022
Certainly, this comes as no shock. Bettors love their football. It’s what helped New York record an astounding 17.2 million pings within its first 36 hours of legal online sports betting in early January — in New York City alone, more than any other state within the same time span.
And it’s what will help online sports betting in New York likely become the first state to accept over $2 billion in bets in a single month, potentially as early as October.
