Arizona sportsbook handle jumps to $486.1m in October

The significant increase in handle, from $291.2m staked between 9 and 30 September, came as Rush Street Interactive joined BetMGM, Caesars, WynnBet, FanDuel, Penn National’s Barstool Sportsbook, Kindred’s Unibet and Churchill Downs’ TwinSpires in the market.

DraftKings, with $151.5m staked during the month, led the market in terms of handle ahead of FanDuel on $120.8m, with BetMGM following in third on $92.1m. 

Online sportsbooks accounted for the vast majority of this total, at $479.3m, with just $6.8m staked through retail outlets. 

Players won back $448.6m of amounts staked, leaving adjusted gross revenue of $36.3m across all licensees. Again DraftKings led the market, with revenue of $11.0m, followed by FanDuel on $9.1m and BetMGM on $7.6m. 

However, heavy spending on promotions cut gross revenue significantly, with operators spending $26.0m on free bets and credits, resulting in taxable gross revenue of $10.4m. This, however, marketed a significant improvement on September, when all online gross revenue was wiped out by promo spend. 

In September, only Caesars and FanDuel, through their retail sportsbooks, posted any taxable revenue (of $392,417.8), though six did so in October. 

This promotional spend upended the running order, with BetMGM, on $2.8m leading the way in terms of revenue, followed closely by FanDuel around $50,000 behind across retail and digital. DraftKings, the biggest promotional spender, fell to third on $2.5m.   

This resulted in tax revenue of $1.0m for the state of Arizona. Retail betting revenue, subject to an 8% tax, brought in $50,867, with a further $971,974 coming from the online sportsbooks.