Pennsylvania Sports Betting Handle Record Broken To Close 2020

Pennsylvania sports betting handle reached $548.6 million in the month of December.
The PA sports betting handle was made of 97.6% mobile bets.
FanDuel’s market share was the highest for the month, taking in 38.8% of all bets in the state.

HARRISBURG – The total handle for sports betting in Pennsylvania went out with a bang to end 2020, breaking its own record once more.

According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, sports bettors wagered a total of $548.6 million for the month, which beat out the state’s previous record of $525.8 million set in October 2020.

That record handle was carried out by online sportsbooks which took in 97.6% of the total bets. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf ordered all casinos to shut down from December 12 to January 4 to help stop the spread of COVID-19, which may have contributed to this uptick in mobile betting.

Of all these wagers, sportsbooks took in a total of $45.3 million in sports betting revenue.

One thing to note, however, is that the state can only tax $34.1 million of this amount since $11.3 million of it consists of promo credits. Pennsylvania enforces a tax rate of 34% on gross gaming revenue, netting the state $12.3 million to close out 2020.

How Does The PA Sports Betting Market Stack Up?

The PA sports betting market continued to be dominated by FanDuel and DraftKings. Together the companies took in 63.3% of all the total bets. FanDuel took in the majority of that percentage at 38.8%.

However, both companies took a slight dip in market share with smaller and newer sportsbooks picking up the slack. Barstool Sportsbook took in 13.4 percent of the total handle which is a 1% increase from the previous month.

BetMGM is the new kid on the block and launched on December 17. However, they were only able to make a small dent in the December betting numbers with $12.1 million in handle accumulating 2.3% of PA online sports betting market share.

The Pennsylvania market as a whole proved to be the third-largest in the nation in 2020 with this report. New Jersey was first and Nevada was second. However, as legal sports betting continues to expand throughout the country, other states might be able to overtake the established PA market.

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Hasan Nabulsi

– In his career, Hasan has worked both local and state government positions—including the Attorney General’s Office in Florida. On top of being familiar with the legislative process, he has also been researching and writing on the legality of sports betting across the US. Outside of work you’ll most likely find him producing or playing music, playing sports, or working on creative writing projects. You’ll also catch him at Doak Campbell Stadium cheering on the Noles.