FanDuel Now Top Sportsbook In New York

• FanDuel is now – by a fair margin – the top sportsbook in New York, largely as a result of their leveraging of their DFS and same-game-parlay offerings.
• FanDuel passed off Caesars Sportsbook, which held the largest market share shortly after launch; however, much of their market share was a result of huge initial promotional spending.

ALBANY, N.Y. – From January 8-23, Caesars Sportsbook was able to capture the largest sports betting market share in New York, largely as a result of huge promotional spending. Soon after, however, Caesars began to reign in their promotional spending. As a result, they have lost their market share advantage to FanDuel.

FanDuel Passes Caesars, Grabs Largest NY Market Share Despite Lower Promo Spending

From February 14-20 (the most recent week with data available), FanDuel turned over $130.6 million in wagers, nearly doubling Caesars’ $65.8 million sports betting handle in the same time period.

This is a major change from early after launch. In the period from January 17-23rd, Caesars turned over a $229.7 million handle while FanDuel handled just $159.6 million.

“New York for me is a great example. People got big market shares of handle because they were handing out free dollars… but now you look at where the market shares have gone when people are actually reverting back to using the best product and FanDuel is now No. 1 in that market,” said  * Peter Jackson, CEO of Flutter Entertainment (FanDuel’s parent company) during Tuesday’s earnings call.

DFS, Same-Game Parlays Separating FanDuel From The Pack

Jackson also says that FanDuel spent only about 75% of what other sportsbooks spent on promotions across the United States.

However, this is because FanDuel is uniquely positioned in the market – their DFS product is well-established and was available in many states even before legal sports betting legislation.

FanDuel has been able to establish a loyal user base of bettors who began using FanDuel for their DFS product, eventually switching to their sportsbook. This allows FanDuel to save money on advertising and promotions.

“I think from an acquisition cost perspective, we undoubtedly have always had an advantage in the market in terms of our ability to cross our customers from DFS into sports (betting),” said Jackson. “And that’s something we’ve made sure we really benefited from.”

Besides their unique position in the market, FanDuel has another thing going for them that has allowed them to overtake the top position New York’s legal sports betting market: same-game parlays.

Online sportsbooks traditionally do not offer same-game parlays, as many bets can build off each other. FanDuel has abandoned this norm, choosing to separate themselves with the same-game parlay offerings. According to Jackson, this feature attracts a lot of attention:

“I think at the backside of that equation, looking at the LTVs (lifetime values), we obviously have a structural advantage of the same-game parlay,” said Jackson. “And we’ve seen very substantial use of that among our customers which gives us a margin advantage.”

While FanDuel will have to fend off DraftKings and Caesars – as well as a litany of other smaller books – for the New York sportsbook crown going forward, their unique position in the market coupled with their same-game-parlay offerings should allow FanDuel to lead the pack in New York for the foreseeable future.

News tags: Caesars Sportsbook | DFS | DraftKings | FanDuel Sportsbook | Flutter Entertainment | New York | Peter Jackson | Same-Game Parlays