After two months of record-breaking numbers, sports betting in the Keystone State retreated, mainly due to the quantity of football games in January.
Pennsylvania saw $858.1 million in bets last month, a roughly 7% month-over-month decline.
Revenue also fell from the December’s high, but it was still well above the other recent months. Operators made $97.6 million in gross revenue and after $27.7 million in promotions, came away with $69.9 million.
The books combined to hold 11.3% of the wagers they accepted, but the online books had bettor luck than the retail locations. Mobile sportsbooks kept 11.5% of their action while the brick-and-mortar locations came away with 7.9%.
ESPN stays popular at a cost
Penn National (and their ESPN BET sportsbook) is showing that with enough effort, a book can increase its market share significantly. The problem is the price to improve the handle may not be worth it.
The huge budget for ESPN BET still put them well behind FanDuel and DraftKings, who dominated the Keystone State. FanDuel led all operators with $373 million in bets ($39.5 million in revenue) followed by DraftKings at $212 million ($19 million in revenue).
Then came ESPN BET with $76 million but they ended January in the red, losing $142,000. BetMGM was next with $47.5 million and $3.5 million in revenue. BetRivers was fifth with $34.3 million in handle and $1.6 million in revenue.
Revenue makers in Pennsylvania
No other Pennsylvania sports betting operator made more than a million dollars, but in such a competitive state, there are sportsbooks who are staying quite profitable despite losing the battle for wagers.
One was BetFanatics, who were ninth in handle but reported the sixth-highest revenue.
Also, BetParx ended up with the fifth-most money thanks to their retail location which was the most profitable of all the physical locations.
