Mobile Market Helps Sports Betting Thrive in Pennsylvania

Sports betting is alive and well in Pennsylvania and continuing to grow thanks to the introduction of mobile gaming. For November, the revenue reports have been released, showing the market reached $266 million in handle last month. In total since launching sports betting, the handle has reached $316.5 million. What is significant about this number is that mobile betting has only been live since June while sports betting was in operation via retail outlets since November.

Big Mobile Push

With the introduction of mobile gaming back in the summer, the sports betting industry of the state has taken off. When comparing the mobile handle, the numbers only continue to increase. In November, the state saw an increase of over 34% via mobile betting when compared to October numbers. Overall, the sports betting handle increased by just over 31% while total revenues were up almost 16% at $20.6 million.

Of that total sports bets placed, online was the top choice of players. A whopping 84.3% of bets were placed online. As more operators begin to offer services online, the numbers will only continue to improve.

Fanduel Sportsbook Reigns Supreme

In Pennsylvania, it seems the go-to sportsbook online is FanDuel. Players have really taken to the brand and they are now the one to beat when compared to other operators. For FanDuel, the company saw $149.7 million in online wagers for November. This was an increase of over 31% from October.

Amazingly, FanDuel produced more than 56% of the online handle for the state and over 47% for the total handle. Players are flocking to FanDuel to place their wagers and it will be interesting to see if the brand can hold on to their position once the NFL season comes to an end. The brand, like others, will see an influx of wagers due to the football season.

FanDuel also has a few tricks up their sleeve. The brand was recently chosen by the Cordish Companies to be their retail provider as well as online. FanDuel will be working with the Live! Casino and Hotel in the Philadelphia Stadium District, where tons of sporting action takes place. The brand will certainly be able to take advantage of heavy traffic as the region is home to four professional sports teams.

Newbies and Additional Results

Fanduel’s rival DraftKings is now in operation in Pennsylvania, having launched on November 4th. The brand works with the Meadows’s Racetrack & Casino, taking in $16.2 million in wagers for their few weeks of operation.

The Unibet brand also debuted in November, launching in partnership with the Mohegan Sun Pocono. The operator saw a much lower handle of $1.9 million.

BetRivers and PlaySugarHouse are brands already in operation in the state, both producing a combined $63 million online sports betting handle. The Parx saw just over $22 million in online handle while Fox Bet generated $13.5 million.

For Fox Bet, the month of November was an improvement. The company was up 72.2% from October, but this could be due to the launch of online poker via the brand’s partner The Stars Group. The company operators the PokerStars brand and launched an online poker room last month.

With the online success continuing to increase, Pennsylvania should slowly begin to give New Jersey a little competition. It will be interesting to watch over the coming months how the state evolves and what happens next regarding the sports betting industry, particularly the online sector.

Jackson
Jackson

Our in-house expert for all things regulation, Jackson covers all major recent developments across US states relating to gambling laws & legislation.