Pennsylvania’s sportsbooks took a beating in February with disappointing handle and revenue, despite Super Bowl
Pennsylvania’s February sports betting revenue took a disappointing 25.4% slide from January, figures released Monday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board showed. The state’s six operational sportsbooks generated revenue of $1,946,816 last month, down from $2,607,205 in January.
February was the first full month of operation of all six sports betting facilities. Parx Casino, Parx South Philadelphia Turf Club, and Harrah’s Philadelphia launched their sportsbooks in January and only posted partial results for that month.
Pennsylvania’s six operational sports betting facilities handled a total of $31,500,742 in wagers last month. The figure reported represented a slight 1.6% decrease from January when the sportsbooks took in just over $32 million in wagers. However, it should be pointed out that the Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events on the calendar, took place in February, so it can be said that the betting volumes reported by the state’s wagering facilities were certainly somewhat disappointing.
Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh was the state’s best performing sportsbook. The facility received $8,147,559 in wagers last month and generated revenue of $627,521. Pennsylvania’s first sportsbook Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, was the one to record the poorest performance in terms of revenue generated. The facility reported $13,914 in revenue in February. The South Philadelphia Race and Sportsbook was the bottom performer in terms of bets placed. The property handled $2,601,651 in wagers last month.
Is It Time to Start Worrying about Pennsylvania’s Sports Betting?
Despite the steep revenue dip last month, it should be noted that legal sports betting is still a very young industry in Pennsylvania and it is quite early to draw any definitive conclusions about its state and how it would develop in the coming months and years.
In the first place, it should be noted that Pennsylvania is a big market. The state ranks among the nation’s largest by population. In addition, there are more betting facilities to open doors in the next few months, which could either lead to saturation of the market or to an important boost to wagering activity in the state. The state’s sports gambling industry is also yet to receive a major boost from the upcoming launch of online and mobile betting services.
Digital wagering turned out to be the real driver of sports betting growth in neighboring New Jersey, and a similar positive impact is hoped to be seen in Pennsylvania, as well. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has said recently that the online betting roll-out is likely to begin in mid-2019.
And while there are still at least several months until Pennsylvania bettors will be able to place their wagers via desktop or mobile, the state’s gambling industry is poised to receive an instant boost from the upcoming men’s NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Betting on the tournament’s 63 games is in full swing. And 63 separate events have a big chance to draw much greater betting activity than a single massive football game did last month.
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