NFL drives Oregon, New York, Virginia record sports betting handles in October

• Daniel Horvat
• November 14, 2023

Oregon Lottery report revealed that $71.9m of wagers have been accepted in October, which is a 29.4% increase year-on-year, and the largest increase in any state. New York, meanwhile, posted overall record-breaking numbers, topping $2bn for the first time ever.

Oregon and New York have posted record-breaking sports betting handle numbers for the month of October, with Virginia bracing for a record-breaking month as well after a very succesful September. The numbers coincide with the NFL season being in full swing, and most of the bets placed during the month of October are on football.

The 2023 NFL season started on September 7, and it needed some time to gain traction with the sports bettors, but now that it did, the legal sportsbooks across the country are posting record-breaking numbers. Oregon, New York and Virginia are all seeing a significant increase in their respective sports betting handles, all fueled by the bets on NFL in October.

According to a survey by the American Gaming Association, more than 73 million Americans plan on betting on the NFL this season, which is almost a 60% increase compared to last year’s poll.

Oregon

The latest monthly revenue report for the month of October by the Oregon Lottery, it is revealed that an all-time record of $71.9m in wagers have been accepted throughout the month. The previous record was $1m smaller and was posted in January 2023. This new record also marks a significant 17.2% increase of the previous month’s sports betting handle of $61.3m as well as a 29.4% increase year-on-year.

In the first ten months of 2023, sports bettors in Oregon have now wagered $530.5m.

DraftKings is the state’s sole licensed sportsbook and has entered the market in January 2022. The company managed to generate $8.5m in revenue from a win percentage of 11.90%, which is a 26.9% increase from the previous month and 49.1% year-on-year.

Legal sports betting launched in Oregon in October 2019. The state collects 51% of the sports betting revenue, which means that for the month of October Oregon received around $4.3m in taxes.

$27.3m in wagers were placed on football, which was more than three times than the next most popular sport, basketball. Baseball is coming in at third, while soccer and tennis are fourth and fifth, and ice hockey sixth.

New York

The New York State Gaming Commission reported that online sportsbooks have attracted more than $2bn in wagers during October, again an unprecedented number for the market.

New York launched online sports betting in January 2022, and since the grand opening there have only been three instances where the monthly mobile sports betting handle failed to break the $1bn mark, although this is very much dependant on which sport is in season and which is not. This is the first time the $2bn mark was broken, not just in NY but in any state.

There are eight licensed online sportsbooks in the state, with Bally Bet being the ninth but it is temporarily closed as the sports betting platform migrates to a new provider. FanDuel just overtook DraftKings with a $891m handle compared to DraftKings’ $652m, and Caesars is the best of the rest with $193m. BetMGM and BetRivers are the only two other sportsbooks with a handle over $100m, while PointsBet, WynnBet and Resorts World Bet get peanuts in comparison to the top two that currently own 76.7% of the handle.

In a weekly period, ending Nov 5, however, the weekly handle dropped by 9.3% compared to the week before.
New York is taxing the sportsbook revenue with 51%, so the $166.3m of October gross gaming revenues (GGR) of the eight sportsbooks resulted with a $84.8m in tax revenue for the state. Most of the revenue goes to education, and a fraction goes to addiction programs and to youth sports.

According to the NY State Gaming Commission, more than $8bn in mobile sports bets were placed on football between 5 September 2022, when the football season started, to Super Bowl Sunday in February next year.

Virginia

For Virginia, October numbers haven’t yet been released by Virginia Lottery but the numbers for September are also seeing a 26.5% increase, and Virginia was known to break the $500m mark for the first time in October last year when the total sports betting handle was reported to be $528m.

In September this year, Virginia posted a total handle of $520m, which is a 26.5% year-on-year increase compared to last September’s handle of $411m that preceeded the then-record-breaking October handle of $528m. The $520m September 2022 handle is also the second-largest in Virginia since the opening of the sports betting market in January 2021.
The year-to-date handle sits at $3.7bn while the all-time total figure is $11.8bn.

Virginia sports bettors won a total of $466m during September, giving operators a combined win percentage of 10.39%. Revenues for the month were $45.6m, resulting in state taxes of just over $7m for a year-to-date total of $49.8m.
Virginia has a total of 17 licensed online sportsbooks that include FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars, BetRivers, Unibet and several others. WynnBet recently decided to close their non-retail sportsbooks.

In Virginia, basketball was by far the most popular sport to place a single bet on in September, taking 21.35% of the bets. Tennis and baseball came second and third respectively, with football coming in at #4 with 10.16%. However, parlays are listed separately and they account for over 22% of the bets, and they probably have a lot of football bets.