Swing And A Miss For Pennsylvania’s February Sports Betting Numbers

• The state notched a handle of $31,500,742, down a half million from January.
• The gross revenue of $1,946,816 was the lowest since the November launch.
• Pennsylvania now has 8 licensed sportsbooks, with 6 being reflected on this report.

Harrisburg – The February Sports Wagering Revenue Report was released on Monday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The numbers? Nothing to pop the champagne over.

Reporting full months for all six of the licensed Pennsylvania sportsbooks for the first time, the state only received $700,854 in tax contributions. This was more than a 25% drop from January’s numbers, which brought in $938,597 in tax contributions.

Many “thanks” goes to the Super Bowl bettors who did favorably well against the books all over the country. New Jersey, for example, lost $4.5 million on wagers for that game alone.

Beating The Book At Penn National Race Course

Penn National’s sportsbook at Hollywood Casino has seen a drop in gross revenue for the fourth consecutive month, which includes November when they were operational for only 15 days.

The handle has also dropped the past three months taking in just over $5 million in December, just under in January, and $3.74 million in February.

But the focus remains on the gross revenue – which is the source of tax contributions. Sports bettors seem to be figuring out their wagering systems and strategies because Penn National kept only 0.37% of the handle.

For reference, the state average of the six sportsbooks’ keep was 6.1% and if you take away Penn National’s numbers, it increases an entire percentage.

This dominant wagering from Harrisburg gamblers required Penn National to only contribute $5,009.11 to the state for the month of February.

While Penn National was the focal point of the numbers, the trend made its way across the entire state.

Harrah’s kept only 4.6% while Parx Casino kept only 5.3%, contributing $49,392.19 and $133,198.52, respectively.

On the opposite side, South Philadelphia Race and Sportsbook were grateful for their poorer gamblers as the book kept 10.6% of their handle. They also accounted for 15% of the entire state’s revenue, despite only bringing in 8% of the overall handle ($31,500,741.9)

The Comparison To New Jersey

Unfortunately for Pennsylvania, they will always be compared to New Jersey because they legalized sports betting at the same time, are in the same area, and has established markets through their big cities.

The handle for Pennsylvania was just 10% of New Jersey’s $320 million February handle and the revenue numbers were in the same ballpark.

This has a lot to do with New Jersey having online betting options for residents, while Pennsylvania residents are still awaiting the soon-to-be-expected launch.

80% on the handle in New Jersey occurred through an online platform and this number continues to keep rising.

When we look further into the numbers, we see that Super Bowl betting in New Jersey accounted for more of a handle than the entire month of Pennsylvania.

What To Look Forward To

Aside from the expected summer launch of mobile legal sports betting, Pennsylvania residents will bring another boost to the handle from March Madness betting.

According to the American Gaming Association, 47 million Americans will place a wager on at least one of the 67 tournament games this year.

Rivers Casino is preparing for the influx of bettors by asking those interested to reserve a spot at the lounge. With a secured spot, they could watch the games and take advantage of the other promotions that will occur.

However, Rivers is also setting the stage for a potential customer loss as they will soon not be the only sportsbook in Pittsburgh. Presque Isle Downs will begin their sportsbook operation in April.

Additionally, the outskirts of Philadelphia just noticed a saturation with the opening of two Valley Forge Sportsbooks, which opened in March.

Both of these sportsbooks will be added to the March sports betting report for Pennsylvania, who hopes their addition will help build the revenue report.

News tags: Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania sportsbooks | sports betting | Sportsbook