Players bet $150m in first weekend of NY online wagering

As part of New York’s state budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, governor Kathy Hochul released some early data on sports wagering in the state to demonstrate its expected tax impact.

After four operators – DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars and Rush Street Interactive – launched online sports betting on 8 January, players wagered $150m in the opening weekend of activity. In total, there were more than 650,000 active player accounts.

While the state did not reveal how much revenue was made in the opening weekend, it said it expects to bring in $249m on sports betting taxes and licence fees for the current fiscal year, which ends on 31 March. Of this total, $200m comes from the initial licence fees and the remainder from taxes.

The state then expects tax revenue of $357m in the 2022-23 fiscal year, $465m in 2023-24, $493m in 2024-25, $509m in 2025-26 and $518m in 2026-27.

With New York’s sports betting tax set at 51% – the highest of any multi-operator jurisdiction in the US – this would mean that revenue is expected to reach around $1.02bn at maturity.

Although four operators launched on the opening weekend, a total of nine were granted licences to do so as part of New York’s bidding process. After the initial weekend of wagering, Entain-MGM joint venture BetMGM was also cleared to launch its online product in the state.