The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported an $800.7 million sports betting handle for March, the fifth time in Keystone State history it reached $800 million.

The handle also ranked fifth all-time in 65 months of legal wagering. All five occasions Pennsylvania bettors have generated $800 million or more handle have come in the last six months, with March’s total up 10.7% compared to the same month last year.

Operators combined for a hold just shy of 8% to claim $63.7 million in gross sports betting revenue. That was down 4.1% from 12 months prior, as last year’s hold was 1.2 percentage points higher.

Bettors took advantage of $18.1 million in promotional credits and bonuses via sports betting apps, which was a year-over-year increase of 14.2% with the NCAA Tournament taking center stage in March. That spend was down 10.1% compared to February when the Super Bowl was the marquee event.

The state was eligible to levy taxes on $45.6 million in adjusted gross revenue, resulting in $15.5 million finding its way into state coffers. It was the third time in the last four months adjusted gross revenue was at least 70% of gross revenue.

The $49.6 million in state taxes for the first quarter of 2024 was up $4.3 million from the same span last year, and adjusted revenue is up 9.5% to $145.8 million.

1 New York $1.85B
2 New Jersey $1.33B
3 PENN. $800.7M
4 N.C. $659.3M
5 Mass. $654.9M
6 Maryland $536.7M
7 Indiana $500.8M
8 Michigan $497.6M
9 Tenn. ~$472M
10 Louisiana $350M#SportsBettingX #GamblingX

— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) April 17, 2024

Though FanDuel has a year-to-date hold of 11.4% on $976.2 million handle — resulting in $111.4 million in gross revenue — much of that was built on January’s 14.8% win rate. The online leviathan was comfortably first in Pennsylvania for both gross revenue and handle with $32 million and $330.9 million, respectively, but the 9.7% hold marked the fourth time in the last six months it failed to attain a 10% win rate.

FanDuel had attained that benchmark in 16 of the previous 18 months before last October. It also led all mobile operators in promotional spend for March at $7.9 million, putting it over the $300 million mark all-time in the Keystone State. More than $29.3 million of those credits have been issued this year.

DraftKings was a clear-cut second, winning $14.7 million of the $207.3 million wagered to craft a 7.1% hold. It moved within $20.6 million of $7 billion in all-time handle in Pennsylvania while notching its seventh straight month with at least $10 million in revenue.

Though BetMGM narrowly finished behind ESPN BET for No. 3 in handle, it did best the PENN Entertainment-owned sportsbook for revenue. BetMGM posted a 6.9% hold against a $51.1 million handle to claim $3.5 million in revenue, while ESPN BET landed one percentage point lower in winning $3.2 million out of the $53.4 million in bets placed.

ESPN BET had a 7% market share of the $759.4 million mobile handle for March, down from 8.2% in February, but still on target for its first-year goal of 7%. Its overall market share in the first quarter was 8.2% after accepting $179.6 million worth of wagers.

Fanatics Sportsbook pushed Caesars hard for the No. 6 spot in mobile handle, more than doubling its action from February to $30.8 million, as it lessened promotional spend by nearly 20% to $940,000. Its hold, however, dropped more than 4.6 percentage points to 5.6% as it eked out a small month-over-month gain in revenue to $1.7 million.

Caesars fended off Fanatics in both categories, posting a 5.8% win rate in reaping $1.8 million in winnings from $31.7 million worth of bets.

BetRivers rounded out the top five for handle with $35.4 million sourced from its Pittsburgh and Philadelphia license tethers. It had a 6.8% hold overall to claim $2.4 million in winnings.

Though brick-and-mortar sportsbooks had a solid March with a 7.9% hold that resulted in $3.2 million in revenue, year-over-year handle dipped 26.4% to $41.3 million.

Live! Casino in Philadelphia accounted for more than 20% of the retail winnings, claiming $662,000 while attaining a 13.1% hold from $5 million-plus in handle.

Though Rivers Casinos’ two sportsbooks combined for $609,000 in revenue, the Pittsburgh locale had a paltry 2.3% hold against a $10 million handle, winning just $233,432 as bettors looked to have jumped on the Duquesne bandwagon for its first-round NCAA Tournament upset of BYU.