Massachusetts is on track to exceed tax revenue forecasts for sports betting, bringing in more than $22 million in less than two months. As for handle, it totaled $579.3 million in April, up 2% from March as the market keeps growing, with 97.7% of it coming from online betting.
NBC Boston cited Bill Speros, a senior betting analyst for bookies.com, who noted that the reason why sports betting is drawing new and occasional gamblers in the Bay State is promos and offers. Sperossaid: “Nearly a million people have signed up for sports betting accounts since online wagering launched.”
DraftKings led the way among licensed entities in April with by far the largest market share. The locally-based operator captured 50.1%, with rival FanDuel falling back to 30.5%. Other online sportsbooks included BetMGM (which accounted for 7.6% of the mobile market), Barstool (4.3%), Wynn (4%), and Caesars (3.4%).
Online betting sees strong start in Massachusetts
Data provided by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission shows sports fans gambled nearly $580 million in total, online and in-person, in April. As it tends to be the case with states that offer both options, online gambling easily outperformed in-person gaming.
Massachusets won nearly $12 million in tax revenue in April, with similar numbers recorded for March, when online gambling was legalized. Combined, the two months have seen more than $20 million in taxes.
Looking ahead, with the NHL and NBA playoffs over, the Massachusetts sports betting market could cool down over the summer. However, experts point towards the fall (and the start of the NFL seasons) as a point when betting could begin to increase again.
More on Massachusetts casino and sports betting revenue for April
Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission released its casino and sports wagering revenue report for April 2023. The commission unveiled that Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) of approximately $101 million was generated at Plainridge Park Casino, MGM Springfield, and Encore Boston Harbor.
Additionally, the state recorded approximately $58.91 million in taxable sports wagering revenue across the six mobile/online sports wagering licensees and the three in-person licensees for the month of April.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2023/05/17/67187-massachusetts-yields-22m-in-tax-revenue-from-sports-betting-in-first-two-months
