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The United States sports betting industry has seen a huge jump now that the National Football League has returned to action. Many markets were struggling to put up numbers throughout the summer months and there was some concern that betting had become less popular.
It’s pretty clear that sports betting is more popular than ever, and September was a massive month for the industry throughout the country. It appears as if that trend has continued in October, especially when looking at the early reports.
Both New Jersey and Pennsylvania have announced sports betting numbers for October, and the numbers remained strong. Here is a look at the reports for each state and what might be expected moving forward.
New Jersey Keeping Pace With New York
New York went over $2 billion in monthly sports betting handle for the state in October as it just continues to put up ridiculous numbers. It looked as if New York was stealing business from New Jersey when the state first launched mobile wagering, but that’s no longer the case.
There is clearly enough sports betting action to go around based on the report from the state of New Jersey from October. New Jersey sportsbooks saw $1.293 billion in handle in October, and that represented a massive 22% year-over-year growth.
One thing that helped in October was five weekends of NFL football, but that was actually the case in 2022 as well. This is now the fourth straight month with a year-over-year increase, but there were 12 months of decreased totals up to that point.
New Jersey will never be able to challenge New York and become the leader again, even though it has more mobile sports betting options than its neighbor. Not only did the sports betting handle increase in October, but the total sports betting revenue did as well.
Total sports betting revenue was over $92 million in October, and it was just at $77 million last year at this time. Revenue for the entire year is up 35% from the first 10 months in 2022, and this is really the most important point of data for both sportsbooks and the state.
Pennsylvania Sees Handle Record
New Jersey wasn’t the only state that saw a big jump in total sports betting handle for the month as sportsbooks in Pennsylvania were able to set a new record. Total sports betting handle in Pennsylvania checked in at $829 million in October, and this market just continues to get closer to the $1 billion mark.
October continues to be a big month for the state of Pennsylvania as the previous sports betting handle record was set 12 months ago. The previous record came in at $797.1 million, and that shows that sports betting continues to grow in the state.
Just like with other states with legal sports betting, DraftKings and FanDuel just continue to dominate the sports betting market. These two sports betting giants accounted for more than 78% of the total sports betting handle, and the revenue was nearly the same as well.
Pennsylvania continues to have a high tax rate set at 36%, but online sportsbooks are able to deduct promotions before paying that amount. This state was still able to bring in $17 million in tax revenue for the month and the total is now up to over $500 million since sports betting launched in 2018.
