March 16, 2022
The data is in, and the data is amazing. There’s no slowing down New York mobile sports bets, and residents of the state continue to wager staggering amounts. After a quick start, their momentum has maintained itself and is now over $3.5 billion.
Online sports book operators have seen betting averages above $50 million per day, and all those bets have translated into nearly $240 million in revenue. But let’s not forget that the state takes a ludicrous 51% of that in taxes.
Any thoughts of the betting volume slowing down can be dismissed, at least for now. Industry experts believe that New Yorkers will drop another $400 million betting on March Madness brackets and tournament games over the next several weeks.
In the midst of all this success comes a new proposal which would actually lower that 51% tax rate. How much lower (and just how realistic the chances of it passing) are not yet known. But if passed, it would also increase the number of operators allowed in the market.
What is known is that before the launch of New York mobile sports bets there were several ideas floated, some of which lowered the tax rate to 35% once there were 13 operators, and to just 25% if there were to be 15 or more operators.
Mike Mazzeo of the PlayNY website stated that “The initial surge of promotional spending has died down a bit and a post-football slowdown is expected. But New York remains on a remarkable pace.”