PA Sports Betting Handle Surges Behind Mobile Expansion

Pennsylvania sports betting topped September’s handle record in October easily, in large part thanks to another strong performance by FanDuel Sportsbook.

Sportsbooks handled $241.2 million in bets in October, up 24% from the previous record of $194.5 million set last month. Revenue hit $19.1 million, down 1.1% from September. October had a win percentage of 7.9%.

So far, FanDuel Sportsbook is far and away the leader with a 48.9% share of total handle, according to the state’s report. That jumps to a share of 57.3% when only looking at online handle.

Mobile sports betting in PA accounted for better than 82% of all wagers placed in the Keystone State. That figure tracks closely with NJ sports betting, which approached 85% of handle via mobile last month.

State breakdown, by operator

FanDuel Sportsbook made waves quickly in Pennsylvania after launching in July and seems to be solidly in first place for the time being.

Rush Street and Kambi’s BetRivers and Play SugarHouse were a distant second with $56.6 million in combined online handle. Its two land-based casinos — the Rivers casinos in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — combined for $14.9 million in retail handle.

Rivers Pittsburgh had the highest retail sports betting handle at $7.7 million, followed by Parx Casino‘s $7.5 million and Rivers Philly’s $7.2 million.

Fox Bet ranked last for online and retail sports betting handle as the newly branded operation tries to gain a foothold.

More competition coming in PA sports betting

Two more sportsbooks are vying for market share as of November.

DraftKings Sportsbook, of course, needs no introduction. FanDuel Sportsbook seems to have a pretty solid hold of top market share in most states, but DraftKings does its fair share and then some.

DraftKings helped lead Resorts Digital to a second-place finish in New Jersey’s October revenue. Resorts trailed the Meadowlands, which is led by FanDuel.

DraftKings launched weeks ago through a market access agreement with Penn National. Its entry into the PA gambling and Bitcoin sports betting industry could shake up the market order in time.

Unibet coming as well

The other brand is Kindred‘s Unibet, which launched with Mohegan Sun Pocono. While plenty popular in Europe, the Unibet brand is likely new to many bettors in Pennsylvania.

But Unibet has a pretty good partner to make some introductions. The brand signed up with the Philadelphia Eagles to be an official partner, meaning it will get branding in Lincoln Financial Field for the duration of the multi-year agreement.

One caveat: the partnership does not include any direct promotions for Unibet’s sportsbook, just the online casino. But the website is the same for the sportsbook and casino, so no doubt some of Unibet’s traffic will come from the Eagles’ partnership.