February Sports Betting Revenue Roundup: SB 55 Sets Records

• New Jersey saw $743 million wagered on sports in February.
• Michigan topped $300 million in betting handle in its first full month.
• Pennsylvania saw a 55% increase in betting activity year over year.

LANSING, Mich. – Sports betting fans were active at sportsbooks in February, leading to increases year over year in multiple markets.

Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania all saw large betting handles in February, with Michigan surpassing $300 million in its first full month of legal online sports betting.

While betting activity was down across the board compared to January, the numbers still show heavy action compared to last year.

Michigan’s Big Month

Broken record warning: Michigan online gambling revenue in February: Online casino/poker = $80 million. Sports betting = $9.3 million. TAX REVENUE: Online casino/poker = $14 million. Sports betting = $200k.

— Steve Ruddock (@SteveRuddock) March 16, 2021

Super Bowl 55 betting was the main source of action in these markets, as it was the most wagered on sporting event in US history.

The Michigan sports betting market benefited greatly from this, raking in $302 million in wagers on the month, with $9.4 million collected in gross revenue.

Detroit casinos were the biggest benefit, with local casinos seeing $23,711,983 in wagers despite being open at limited capacity according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board.

New Jersey’s Continued Dominants

Those betting on sports in New Jersey wagered $743 million in February, ending the consecutive $900 million betting handle streak the Garden State was on since November 2020.

Sportsbooks saw $46.2 million in sports betting revenue.

The ending of the NFL season, along with February being a shorter month could attribute to why the numbers were lower.

These lower numbers do not reflect a negative trend, however. Looking at the report released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, we can see New Jersey is still seeing growth, with betting handle up 66.6% from the $495 million wagered in February 2020.

NJ sportsbooks saw $117.4 million of its total wagers coming from Super Bowl bets, with $11.3 million in revenue collected by the sportsbooks. This is almost 25% of the total revenue collected in February.

The Garden State saw the second most wagers and second-highest revenue collected right behind Nevada.

Pennsylvania Remains Top Three

The third most wagers came from the Pennsylvania sports betting, with $509,547,820 wagered in February.

This makes four out of the last five months Pennsylvania has seen more than $500 million wagered on sports.

The Betting handle may have been down 17% from the record-setting $615.3 million wagered in January, but it is up 54.4% year over year.

Sportsbooks collected $16.4 million in sports betting revenue according to the report released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The state saw $5.6 million of that total in taxes.

What February shows is that nationwide, legal sports betting sports betting is in a good state. With the NCAA College Basketball Tournament around the corner, these markets are expected to see even bigger betting numbers in March.

News tags: Michigan | New Jersey | Pennsylvania | Super Bowl | Super Bowl 55