November was such a dominant month for Arizona sports betting operators that it's no surprise that their numbers in December were less impressive. While their handle was still great, statewide revenue collapsed and brought some sportsbooks down a peg.
The Arizona Department of Gaming announced a smaller, but still impressive $849.3 million in bets for December. While it's not the $900 million collected in November, it was still Arizona’s second highest handle ever. Plus, the decrease to end the year is normal in the Valentine State. This is the third straight year where December’s handle was worse than the previous month.
Online wagers are the main source of handle with just $5 million of the action coming from brick-and-mortar locations. There is more bad news for the physical locations, from their $5 million in bets, they paid out $5.2 million in winnings, an overall loss. But with a tax bill of $3,600, BetMGM was the only sportsbook of the four that made money.
The mobile books on the other hand reported $49.2 million in gross receipts. After $23.5 million in free bet deductions, their final adjusted revenue came to $25.7 million. Monthly revenue declined by 55% with November’s net revenue coming in at $57 million.
Nonetheless, 11 of the 14 online sportsbooks reported a positive adjusted revenue. Only Golden Nugget and Sporttrade paid out more than they took in, while Desert Diamond Mobile was slightly positive before adjustments.
But they may be able to turn things around in January. The two sportsbooks that didn’t make a profit in November (Bally's and Hard Rock) ended up in the green the following month. From that, the tax bill came to $2.5 million.
FanDuel tops DraftKings
| Operator | December Handle | Gross Revenue (after free bet deductions) |
|---|---|---|
| FanDuel | $275 million | $13.5 million |
| DraftKings | $272.7 million | $9.1 million |
| BetMGM | $111.9 million | $443,000 |
| Caesars | $47 million | $1.2 million |
| Fanatics | $43.2 million | $103,000 |
| bet365 | $40 million | $32,000 |
It is a tight race at the top of the standings, Arizonans like using FanDuel and DraftKings. The other Arizona sports betting operators had a very inconsistent December, especially when it came to the relationship between handle and revenue.
BetMGM enjoyed the third highest handle, but revenue was under $1 million, which was much lower than the $8 million collected the previous month. On top of that, it was also lower than BetRivers and Hard Rock whose combined handle was $21 million, a fraction of BetMGM's.
Fanatics also struggled despite being a top-five sportsbook when it came to handle. Fanatics' revenue fell from nearly $2 million to roughly $100,000 in December.
