Pennsylvania Sports Betting Handle Drops in April, But Not As Much as Other States

Like most states, April was a hard month for sports betting operators in Pennsylvania. Following March Madness, sports betting in April usually sees a decline. In Pennsylvania, the handle fell by 14%, but the Keystone state fared relatively well compared to others that incurred a much larger drop.

Indiana saw a month-on-month decline of 25% and Michigan saw a decline of 26%. Even New Jersey, which regularly hits record-highs with each consecutive month, saw a 13% decline from March to April.

Handle and Revenue Breakdown

In April, Pennsylvania sports betting operators took in $479.4 million in bets, effectively breaking the four-month streak of a $500 million or more handle. The handle dropped by 14.4% compared to March’s $560.3 million, the lowest since September 2020. Likewise, sports operator revenue dropped 13.9% from $41 million in March to $36 million in April.

The silver living? Compared to April 2020, which generated a record-low handle of $46 million (due to the pandemic), April 2021 saw a significant year-on-year increase. Overall sportsbook revenue also saw a massive year-on-year increase of 1,025.1%. In April 2020, the market generated $3.2 million in gross gaming revenue and in April 2021, $36 million.

Market Leaders

FanDuel generated the largest handle with 35% of the total market share and $11.4 million in net gaming revenue. DraftKings came in a far second with 22% of the handle, amounting to $5.5 million in net gaming revenue. Barstool Sportsbook came in third with 12.2% of the handle and $150 thousand in net gaming revenue. (The relatively low net revenue was due to giving out a lot of bonuses.)

BetMGM came in fourth place with 6.9% of the market's total handle and $1.1 in net gaming revenue. BetRivers rounded out the top 5 with a 10.2% take of the handle and $2.2 million in net gaming revenue.