The first full month of college football and NFL season had a tremendous effect on sportsbooks in the Empire State. That effect isn’t any more evident than the September sports betting revenue report.
The numbers for the month reported by the New York State Gaming Commission were a marked improvement from the previous month. They cleared the way for all four New York casinos to have their best months of the year.
Football boosted September sports betting revenue
The biggest difference between August and September is that college football betting and the NFL are in full swing for their regular-season schedules. Not only are there plenty of games to bet on at least four days of the week, but there are other opportunities, as well.
Bettors who wish to wager on futures like which teams will win the College Football Playoff and Super Bowl tend to do so as early in the season as they can. Studies have shown basketball to be the most popular sport among US bettors, but football contends.
Football may not have the volume of bets, but the amount wagered is second to none. That’s apparent in the numbers in the Empire State.
The skinny on the fat September sports betting revenue
September saw NY sports betting revenues at all four commercial casinos skyrocket. The largest jump from August was at Resorts World Catskills, where August’s revenue was a mere 17% of what the sportsbook took in for September.
The numbers for September for each casino, followed by their previous month in parentheses, were:
- del Lago: $836,929 ($182,950)
- Resorts World Catskills: $381,210 ($67,881)
- Rivers Casino: $903,892 ($445,291)
- Tioga Downs: $161,834 ($132,030)
Those numbers put the total amount of revenue for New York sports betting at over $2.28 million. In August, that figure was $828,152.
New York’s revenue reports for each casino do not include the handle, so determining what percentage of the amount wagered was kept by each sportsbook as revenue is difficult. The reports do state how much was paid in taxes for the month, however.
Tax for the month and why New York is unique that way
Unlike many other states with legalized sports betting, New York casinos have to consider customers’ wagers on pending bets as revenue during the months they collect the amounts wagered. In other states, that money isn’t counted as revenue until those bets are actually settled.
The revenue reports include all gaming activity at the casinos in their tax figures. Because of that, tax figures don’t always reflect increases in individual parts of the revenue equation like sports betting.
The four casinos actually paid over a million dollars more to county, local and state governments in August than they did in September. The August figure was $17.31 million while the September total was $16.05 million.
Another reason for the decrease is all four casinos saw less action at their slots. All but del Lago also saw their revenue from table games drop, as well.
October may prove to be even better for the New York sportsbooks with the return of the NBA and NHL. So far, however, September is the gold standard.
